Close to a third of all 16-year-olds sitting for O levels are not opting to study foreign languages, with figures dropping further at the post-secondary level.
Official data shows that of the 3,716 students who sat for the Sec exams last year, 766 did not study any foreign language. Another 539 did not sit for any exam, bringing the total number of 16-year-olds who did not study any language apart from Maltese and English to 1,305. This amounts to 30 per cent of the population born in 2000.
Another 15 to 20 per cent of those who opted to study a foreign language failed to obtain a pass or did not show up for the exam.
Expressing concern at the number of students leaving compulsory schooling without foreign language skills, senior lecturer Mario Pace told the Times of Malta that the situation was even more worrying at higher levels.
This year, only 189 students from all post-secondary institutions opted to study Italian, French, Spanish, German or Arabic at the advanced level. Another 292 opted to study a foreign language at the intermediate level.
According to Dr Pace, these figures did not represent individual students. In reality, the numbers could be even lower.
The focus should not be solely on writing skills
“A Eurostat report that was issued recently showed that, at the European level, 98.6 per cent of pupils at lower secondary school were studying at least one foreign language.
“Unfortunately, in Malta, the number of school-leavers who have no accredited certification in foreign language skills is alarmingly high.
“We’re talking about almost half of Form 5 students having little or no such skills,” Dr Pace pointed out.
He said that the lack of interest in foreign languages had long been a problem, pointing to data from 2012, when almost 40 per cent of 16-year-olds did not opt to study a foreign language.
On what could be causing such disinterest in languages, Dr Pace said that while there were a number of contributing factors, the perception that those who followed this path struggled to find a job was still common.
“Many people still believe that we should focus on science subjects and IT because these offer good jobs. That is true, but even languages give you good jobs,” he noted.
As Malta’s economy is dependent on human resources and foreign trade, Dr Pace added, it was crucial that students were equipped with language skills, yet it seemed this was not the case and employers often struggled to find workers with a good command of foreign languages.
He criticised the way foreign languages were taught, insisting that the focus should not be solely on writing skills.
At present, he said, 70 per cent of exams were composed of a writing requirement.
On how to encourage more students to study foreign languages, Dr Pace said that the education authorities had already introduced a number of measures at the primary level, with programmes for students as young as eight at colleges all over Malta.
The foreign language awareness programme – FLAP – is being piloted in all Klabb 3-16 centres and will be introduced at all State schools in Year 3 in the coming scholastic year.
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com