School teachers' awareness of the use of language in bilingual classrooms

Abstract

This study looks into primary school teachers' awareness of their use of language in Maltese bilingual classrooms. It investigates deeply the issue of bilingualism and code-switching, both in the local and foreign contexts with special emphasis given to the bilingual situation in the USA, where most of the bilingual education programs were developed. It also gives a detailed account of the Maltese bilingual context with special attention to Curricula and school language policies. During the course of research eleven teachers, hailing from different school sectors, were interviewed about their thoughts on bilingualism and code-switching. They were also observed in their own classrooms. The research outcomes revealed that most school and education policies in Malta endorse a bilingual approach which is in favour of separating the two languages from each other. However, most teachers whether they agree to it or not, still make use of code-switching for various reasons which are deeply analysed in the discussion of this dissertation.