Vol. 15 no. 2 / December 2021 / Special Issue: Languages in Education

Italians represent the largest community of foreign learners in our schools. In this paper we provide some background regarding the recent migration of Italians to Malta and we present and discuss language-related issues which affect the inclusion of learners in local schools. We refer to data provided by educators who responded to a questionnaire and to semi-structured interviews included in a Master in Teaching and Learning dissertation (Palazzo, 2020). Our analysis reveals that the inclusion of Italian learners is conditioned by their levels of competence in Maltese and English, and that this could determine their active participation in class, even during lessons of Italian itself. Although their experience in Maltese schools is generally positive, there are instances where adapting to a new educational system is the cause of demotivation which leads to absenteeism, as well as other cases where they are victims of bullying. Furthermore, some Italian learners show signs of distancing from their mother tongue, although many of them reveal a sense of pride towards their cultural heritage.

This study investigates the state of health of the spoken component in the teaching and learning of French as a Foreign Language (FFL) in Malta, positing that this may throw some light on the nature of foreign language (FL) pedagogical methods employed locally. A review of research conducted on the practice of the spoken skill by Maltese learners of French is supported by a study of questioning techniques employed by FFL teachers and their effect on the quality of learners’ spoken participation in class. Modern language pedagogy values practice of the spoken skill by L2 learners. The language teacher as interaction facilitator needs to master strategies based on asking direct, specific, open-ended questions which may trigger replies that go beyond single-word answers. Using Bloom’s taxonomy ensures that through their questioning, teachers engage learners in different cognitive processes. The analysis is based on a corpus of 16 transcribed FFL lessons delivered in two Maltese secondary schools, studied by means of Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a focus on questions, classified according to the types of responses they generate. The corpus is tagged with a tokenizer for French and another one for Maltese. The platform used for collocation searches and statistical calculations in the multilingual corpus is the Sketch Engine corpus management toolkit. Identification of grammatical categories mostly used by learners is carried out. Results confirm a rather traditional tendency in these classes, with the teacher as dominant figure, and a significant imbalance in the distribution of teacher and learner talk. Teachers frequently ask closed questions about word/phrase meaning and meta-language. Classroom verbal exchanges tend to involve lower order cognitive processes. Grammatical categories used in learner talk are predominantly heads of phrases, with very limited expansion. An improvement in the quality of classroom exchanges is warranted. Teacher training should go beyond theoretical knowledge of Bloom’s taxonomy, to include practice of efficient questioning strategies that may help learners produce longer stretches of L2 talk and develop their thinking skills. Not much progress seems to have been achieved in recent years regarding the practice of speaking in the FFL classroom; a culture change in the FL teaching scenario seems to be necessary to allow for advancement.

Adult learners experience challenges when learning a second language (L2), and educators must think of potential teaching strategies to overcome these challenges. This study explores the learning challenges that adult participants experienced while learning Maltese as a second language (ML2), including some of the teaching strategies which they indicated were effective. This study applied a pragmatic epistemology and a longitudinal, qualitative research design to clarify the complex phenomenon of second language acquisition (SLA) and comprehensively address the research question. Thirty-five adult participants in an ML2 class sat for two timed grammaticality judgement tests (TGJTs) and verb conjugation (VC) tasks, picture interpretation tasks six times over a 15-month period and reflective journals. For post-hoc analysis, the participants participated in an interview and a stimulated recall session. Despite participants’ learning difficulties, which were collected through reflective journals and interviews, they indicated that the acquisition of the Maltese verbal tense and aspect did take place over time, although this was a particularly challenging area of ML2 acquisition. The participants recommended teaching strategies that could facilitate ML2 learning.

Mental health covers a wide range of psychological health conditions. This hides the true extent of the severity of the emotional challenges that children and adolescents encounter early in their lives. Students with dyslexia too can experience these emotional difficulties. This study involves the administration of an anxiety scale to Form 4 and Form 5 students with dyslexia and average readers. In total, 314 respondents with and without learning difficulties attending state and church schools took part. The principal aim of this study was to explore the anxiety levels of students with dyslexia in comparison to average readers in foreign language classes. The secondary aim was to consider gender differences and school type in relation to participants’ reported levels of anxiety when attending such classes. The authors employed a quantitative method and utilised the ‘Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale’ questionnaire developed by Horwitz et al. (1986) to gather data. The research analysis found significant results when the variables mentioned above were taken into consideration. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge about the vulnerability of students with learning difficulties. It also discusses the validity of the measure used, albeit in a context that it was not intended to be used in.

Community service learning (CSL) is growing in higher education across Canada and has been a part of university programs in the US for decades. It is described by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as a “high impact” educational practice, along with academic learning communities, undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, and capstone courses or experiences (Kuh, 2008). Some of the service learning program characteristics that reportedly contribute to its impact include the quality of CSL placements, the quantity and quality of opportunities for student reflection, the application of the placement to academic content, and the duration and intensity of service (Eyler et al., 2001). This paper focuses on the question, what difference does the duration of service learning through volunteering and classroom activities make for student outcomes, drawing on data from a mixed methods study of students engaged in service learning at a Canadian university. Our previous analysis suggests that CSL is perceived very positively by most students who participate and that it contributes to their development in a variety of ways. The study found that even when students did not opt to engage in a community placement within a community service-learning course, they were positively impacted by peer learning. However, little research has examined the relationship between the intensity of service learning and students’ attitudes. This study provides a contribution to this insufficiently explored domain.

This article discusses the implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference’s (CEFR) set of descriptors relating to ‘personal response to creative texts’ in the teaching of Maltese as a Foreign Language (MFL). The new volume of the CEFR’s Companion Volume, published in 2018, included a number of new descriptors, among which are those related to learners’ response to creative texts. As an initial application of this new set of descriptors to MFL, we created an intermedial video production involving poetry, music and dance, that brings to the fore issues of migration. The video stimulates a reflection on humanity’s collective history, and suggests the idea that we all are descendants of people who came from the sea. In addition to the highly motivational aspect of the task, it has helped us estimate the difficulty of such a task in the context of MFL. We also obtained some insight into the application of the relevant descriptors for this part of the MFL syllabus.

Differentiated instruction for diverse learners has been generally applied to compulsory education. However, the challenge of learner diversity is faced by other educational institutions. In Malta, most children attend evening classes twice a week in Christian formation at the centres of the Society of Christian Doctrine. The aim of this study was to explore how catechists at these centres tried to facilitate the learning and participation of all. A qualitative research approach was adopted within the context of an interpretivist framework. Six catechists and eighteen children from classes in six different centres responded to semi-structured interviews, following observations of each catechist in three lessons. Data analysis yielded seven key themes. One of these themes was the planning and organising of differentiated instruction. These catechists were willing to experiment and innovate in an attempt to include all the children under their care in the learning process. As such they prepared interesting lessons, and, within a supportive learning environment, organised the differentiation of content, process and learning product. This research extends the knowledge on differentiated instruction to the informal, non- school, voluntary context. Nourishing insights are provided through reflection on the inclusive policies and practices existing in this sector.

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