Bilingualism in education in Malta

Abstract

For decades, Maltese and English were present in the classroom de facto, but research on how and why they were, and still are, adopted by teachers and learners across the curriculum only started in the early nineteen-nineties (Camilleri Grima, 2013). The division of labour between the two languages lies in the main part in the spoken/written distinction, so that English has retained an almost exclusive role in reading and writing, while Maltese fulfils fundamental pedagogical functions in classroom interaction. For instance, the teacher uses Maltese to explain concepts and to make sure the learners can follow the lesson, to elicit answers, to establish rapport with learners, to manage discourse and for classroom management. For the learners it is essential that they are allowed to answer and to ask questions in Maltese and to fully participate in the day-to-day classroom activities. Naturally, the continual shifting from one language to another to satisfy social and pedagogical conditions results in translanguaging, or the drawing on all of one’s linguistic resources. Most of the articles in this Issue explain in detail how this functions in Maltese classrooms