The language question

In any country with a colonial past language in education will always be a hot topic. Even if we are one of the few really bilingual countries in the world, many are concerned that the proficiency in the use of both English and Maltese is deteriorating and that there is a real risk of losing one of our competitive advantages in attracting investment that is ultimately the key to our prosperity.

We need good English language skills to survive and communicate effectively in the technological, academic and international commercial sectors- John Cassar White

In Malta, English is used mainly in business communication, while Maltese is overwhelmingly the language of most homes, political life, the street and the broadcast media. That the standard of both English and Maltese is deteriorating is easy to say, but more difficult to prove empirically. I know of no empirical studies that prove that the standards of both written and spoken Maltese and English have deteriorated in, for example, the last 30 years. This is because we have no statistical analysis on the population’s language proficiency. But my day-to-day experiences in the last several years convince me that our language competences are indeed falling.

My main concern is about the falling standards in the use of English by our younger generations. As in other bilingual ex-colonies, like Hong Kong, proficiency in English is often considered as “prestigious”. Many consider English as the “language of success” or “the vehicle for economic mobility” or even the “principal determinant of upward an outward mobility”. I prefer to justify the need for better English language skills in Malta because young people must be able to communicate effectively in a global community. Yet my experience is that few students, including University ones, can write English which is not bizarre.

My concern is certainly not a result of social or intellectual snobbery. I studied Maltese at University, always spoke Maltese at home, never liked the use of “Maltenglish”, and enjoy writing, reading and speaking in both English and Maltese. I can never forget that the only time I was subjected to corporal punishment at school was when I was once “caught” speaking in Maltese during the break. So I am certainly not suffering from some colonial hangover when I fret because of the deterioration in our proficiency in the use of English.

One convincing explanation for this phenomenon is that as a result of the democratisation of education in the last half century, it is not surprising that the number of educated people who have a poor command of the language has increased. A few decades ago few young people had the opportunity or the means to educate themselves at post-secondary level, and those who did tended to be the better academically qualified students. Today, many more thousands of young people are in tertiary education and in most courses that do not have a significant linguistic content in the curriculum the proficient use of English is not a requirement.

It will be a disastrous strategy if we ignore this debilitating factor in our educational system and organise some futile crusade aimed at ensuring that Maltese should prevail as the language of teaching in our secondary and post-secondary education.

While academics who live in the comfortable world of linguistics have every right to argue the case for or against the use of one or the other of our official languages, other stakeholders who have the prosperity of our country at heart are equally entitled to state their views, including that of using English as the main tool of communication in the higher levels of education.

We need to be pragmatic in the importance that we give to the teaching of English in our educational system. Our motivation should be based less on social or cultural consideration and more on a utilitarian basis. We promote investment in Malta, especially in financial services where English is the gold standard of communication, by claiming that English is commonly used in Malta by practically everyone. Yet when we still have students that cannot put a simple sentence together – either orally or in writing – in English, it does not take long for investors to realise that the proficient use of English is not really one of Malta’s strengths.

Maltese will always be our national language that gives us an indelible and unique identity. But we need good English language skills to survive and communicate effectively in the technological, academic and, above all, the international commercial sectors. This is the reality we are facing, even if there is little romance in this notion.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com