The influence of Italian on form I English essays

Abstract

The dissertation explores possible influences exerted by the Italian language on Maltese Form I students writing in English. The dissertation describes the English and Italian language by going over their history that led to the respective present day grammatical components. Chapter 3 then deals with the history of the Maltese language, focusing also on the significant roles played by both Italian and English, leading up to the trilingual situation of today. The hypothesis is, then, reviewed against an analysis of 200 English essays written by Form I Maltese students both under examination conditions and as home work. The essays were obtained from four different secondary schools - Mriehel Junior Lyceum, Guze Delia Area Secondary, St. Joseph School, St. Monica School thereby including both Government and Church Schools. The analysis revealed that the Italian language causes both Positive and Negative Transfer on the students' performance. This influence, on the whole, however, is only moderate.