Attitudes towards the teaching and learning of modern languages in the Maltese primary school

Abstract

As psychological and physiological findings suggest, children possess the dispositions needed for language acquisition. Indeed, the aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of the stake-holders towards the teaching and learning of modern languages at Primary Level, as well as to provide information regarding the current practice in this field. The research was carried out in the five Private Primary Schools in Malta, where a modern foreign language is taught besides Maltese and English. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed. These included interviews with school administrators and teachers, questionnaires with pupils and parents and classroom observations. Evaluation of the data gathered showed that the majority of pupils, parents, teachers and school administrators involved in this study, expressed a positive attitude towards the introduction of modern foreign languages at Primary level. However, this research study indicated also that there was a lack of resources and space in the schools, which hindered the more progressive teaching of the foreign language at Primary Level. In addition, most of the teachers were not trained to teach the target language to young learners. Hence, teacher education together with the provision of adequate resources were recommended. Moreover, since the present study focused on the schools where such a policy is already implemented, it was suggested that a study would be conducted on a larger scale in a number of state schools.