Last week's conference cast serious doubts on whether some student-teachers and practising teachers are good enough in English, which would be an added obstacle to the attainment of higher standards among schoolchildren.
Two university lecturers spoke of the need to improve their students' language skills, while another speaker lamented the poor command of the language demonstrated by some teachers in primary schools.
Josephine Milton, who teaches student-teachers heading for primary schools, said 20 per cent of them failed a proficiency test in English last year.
The screening test was introduced in 1997 in an effort to weed out those with a poor command of the language and improve the general standard. A pass is compulsory, but those who fail are allowed re-sits.
Student-teachers, said Ms Milton, often experienced difficulty when trying to use the language during lessons. However, the use of English in the lesson was vital, she insisted. Some children did not have other opportunities to learn or be exposed to the language and they needed practice in order to become confident and competent users.
"Children can learn the language through using it in a meaningful context. Many of them understand and can produce more than we give them credit for.
"It is the English lesson after all. If we don't commit to using English in class we should ask ourselves: Is English really going to be the children's second language?"
Doreen Spiteri, who lectures students who will teach English in secondary schools, said that although a proficiency test as an entry requirement had partly offset the insufficiency of a pass at A-Level English, "we still know nothing about B.Ed students' oral skills when they join the course".
She said there was no interview as part of the entry requirements to gauge qualities that cannot be assessed in a written exam.
One of the challenges faced by the faculty, she said, was to improve the students' language skills.
"The B.Eds, and BA students who then join us for a PGCE course, need to continue learning English while they are doing their degree. And by this I mean they need to have sessions devoted to refining their language skills."
Any further efforts by the faculty to boost the standard of English among aspiring teachers would come not a moment too soon - the problem of poor English already exists among practising teachers, as highlighted by Education Officer Ninette Lucia. Some teachers in state primary schools, she said, have poor command of the language and a large number of them revert to Maltese during the English lesson.
To compound the problem, the teachers whose English is poor don't seem to be aware of it. Sixty-two per cent of teachers who answered a questionnaire set by Ms Lucia rated their overall level of written and spoken English as "very good". Another eight per cent said it was "excellent" and 30 per cent said it was good. Only two teachers in all said it was poor or very poor.
Ms Lucia posed a similar, disquieting question to that of Ms Milton: "Is English still a second language in Malta?"