The use of possessive structures in essays written by Maltese users of English

Abstract

The concept of bilingualism has been prevalent in the Maltese context for hundreds of years and is still a strong feature of the Maltese person’s linguistic repertoire today. Bilingualism brought about a variety of English unique to the Maltese Islands, known as Maltese English (MaltE). This study examines the use of possessive structures adopted by users of this variety, in connection with automaticity and confidence when using the language, all within a written context. To conduct this study, the use of the Corpus of Learner English in Malta (CLEM) was used to examine the written language examination scripts of students sitting for their Maltese national examinations. Through a comparison with a writing task and semi-guided interview, a clearer view of the use of possessive structures of Maltese English users was formed. The conclusion reached was that the least and most confident users of the Maltese English variety used the singular genitive structure at relatively equal amounts, while the plural form of this possessive structure was used more frequently and more accurately by the most confident candidates. Another conclusion reached was that the more confident the candidate, the less aware of the language choices that they were making. The results of this study do not represent the ability of all Maltese users of the English language, but only gives a glimpse into the use of possessive structures and automaticity of a specific cohort.