Maltese language teachers are seriously concerned that a significant number of 16-year-olds are not mastering their native language despite 11 years of compulsory schooling.

This emerges from the Maltese language examiners’ report issued by the Matsec board which analysed the performance of more than 4,000 students who sat for last year’s Secondary Education Certificate, commonly referred to as the O-level exam.

Though two out of every three students (67 per cent) obtained a grade between 1 (highest) and 5, which is good enough to enter post-secondary institutions, examiners flagged the high rate of orthographic and grammatical mistakes as well as poor or lack of punctuation.

The report echoed concerns also raised in other subjects about the decline in reading habits among the upcoming generation and the ever-increasing bad influence of technology on the native language.

Examiners pointed out that, in many cases, students failed to make a distinction between the formal and colloquial terms up to the point that a number of candidates used words that bordered on foul language and other used dialects.

From the grammatical aspect, students showed poor skills in the use of the plural and wrong conjugation of the verbs, with the examiners saying this seemed to be a tough nut to crack for the students. In fact, a substantial number of candidates lost all marks allotted for correct use of orthography in the essay as they had more than 20 mistakes in this part of the exam alone.

“Some students even failed to copy the title of the essay correctly,” the report said. Furthermore, the text indicated the influence social media, like Facebook, was having on the Maltese language.

The same worrying signs emerged in the section specifically aimed to test students’ knowledge on grammar, with less than a third managing to get at least half of the questions right.

Examiners remarked that students were relying excessively on the use of Italian and English words or, even worse, coining nonexisting terms from the two languages like “kkavrat” from the word covered and “jistuffjawhom” from stuffing them.

This trend also emerged in the sentence construction with students translating directly from English to Maltese even when writing simple phrases like il-post jinsab taħt kostruzzjoni for “the place is under construction”.

More blatant examples of ‘code-switching’ flagged in the report were use of the terms like “for granted” and “low self-esteem” in the middle of a sentence.

According to the examiners, the media shoulders part of the blame as a number of students used incorrect expressions that are being repeatedly used on radio and television. The O-level exam also tested students’ ability to write a formal letter and an e-mail but, once again, there were clear signs of the dwindling reading habits and difficulties to express themselves in Maltese only.

In some cases, candidates were not even able to distinguish between the Maltese words for mayor and local council. Worrying signs also emerged from the literature section as a significant number of students could not tell the difference between a poem and a short story, saying the latter was made of stanzas rather than paragraphs.

In their final remarks, examiners expressed concern that shortcomings flagged in the 2015 SEC exams had cropped up in previous years as well but it seemed that the situation was getting from bad to worse.

Describing the students’ performance as “very mediocre”, the report warns that such a trend needed to be addressed in an attempt to reverse the decline in the overall level of the Maltese language.

 Common mistakes

• Use of colloquial terms like ifotti (cheat) and naqa instead of naqra (a little).

• Bad use of the plural forms of certain words like ġismijiet instead of iġsma (bodies) and maridi instead of morda (sick).

• Use of dialects like lużar instead of liżar (bedsheet) and orthographic mistakes
involving the use of the Maltese silent letter għ.

• Use of non-existent words derived from English and Italian such as: isstressati, mezz spedjanti, tittravilja, kunċern, bla ħesil, ħosbital, kurrenzija, polluzzjoni and jadmiraw.

• In some cases, students used five versions of the same word jibqgħu (stay/remain): jibqaw, jibqù, jibgħqu, jibqum, jibqgħaw.

• Phrases derived directly from English: rrid nipprattika aktar ġo dan is-suġġett (I would like to practise this subject better); waqgħu fl-imħabba (they fell in love).

• Incorrect expressions: stat ta’ paniġierku
(literarally: state of panegyric) instead of stat ta’ paniku (state of panic).

• Switching to English for no reason or using non-existing verbs: Din hija hint ta’ x’se jiġri (this is a hint of what is to come), wieħed għandu low self-esteem (one has a low selfesteem); sid il-kelb mar għand il-pulizija biex jixxutjaw il-kelb (the dog owner went to the police to shoot the dog).