Reading Joseph Farrugia’s letter about bad pronunciation of the English language (The Sunday Times, October 9) brought to mind an incident at Mellieħa primary school involving my grandson, who was born in England to an English father, and who came to live in Malta at the age of six.

His teacher was giving an English lesson in class when he used the word ‘bowl’.

The teacher uttered the widely used (in Malta) pronunciation of ‘ba-wl’. My grandson, then aged 10, immediately raised his hand and said: “Sorry, Sir, but it’s ba-oh-wl”, whereupon the teacher ridiculed my grandson for the rest of the lesson.

Now the pronunciation of ‘bowl’ as ‘ba-wl’, as commonly used in Malta, is for the Maltese word ‘bowel’ (intestines). The incident perhaps illustrates where wrong pronunciation comes from.

I am sure that my headmaster Cyril Parker at the old Lyceum in Valletta (circa 1952) – a great English scholar and much respected by his pupils – would have turned in his grave on hearing a teacher instructing pupils in the wrong pronunciation... and then ridicule a pupil for pointing out the right way of saying bowl.