Language exposure of Maltese preschool children

Abstract

Maltese and English are the two official languages of Malta. This does not necessarily mean that the Maltese community is bilingual. The aim of this dissertation was to analyse the linguistic reality at its roots, that is whether English features in the input children are exposed to at home. The population for this study was Maltese children whose ages range from three to five years of age. The first chapter analyses the contemporary situation, drawing from the various literary studies on bilingualism. It delineates the status of both English and Maltese both officially and non-officially. The second chapter is a report on the qualitative study conducted. Ten Maltese children aged between three and four years of age, living in different areas around Malta were videotaped at home, using a cam corder, for more or less one hour. Different families adopted one of the languages as the medium of communication between the family members. Maltese speakers did not speak English at all. English speaking families code switched consistently, resulting in a mixture of both English and Maltese. Also, a social variation resulted, indicating that the upper socioeconomic groups prefer English to Maltese. The third chapter delineates the quantitative study conducted. One hundred face to face interviews were carried out with the objective of generalising the results of the preliminary study to the Maltese population. The respondents were the parents of children between three and five years of age, chosen randomly. Tills study showed that a regional variation exists. English rarely features in the input children who live in the South of Malta are exposed to. On the contrary, children from northern and central areas of Malta are exposed to English much more. The fourth chapter deals with an attitude test. The Matched Guise technique was used to reveal the attitudes of speakers towards English and Maltese. The subjects were the ten children used for the qualitative study. The outcome was that English is highly esteemed in Malta, even by children who speak only Maltese at home and consequently are rarely exposed to English.