Orthographical and grammatical mistakes, a lack of creativity in essay writing, incorrect punctuation and poor analytical skills have once again marred students’ overall performance in the Maltese language Secondary Examination Certificate.
Moreover, the poor linguistic skills used on social media, particularly Facebook, are taking their toll on the level of Maltese used by the 16-year-olds sitting for the SEC exam.
These shortcomings were flagged in the examiners’ report issued in relation to last May’s session of the exam. A total of 3,844 candidates sat for it, of whom two-thirds obtained a grade good enough to enter a post-secondary institution.
However, examiners noted that the same kinds of mistakes kept recurring year after year despite their best efforts to raise awareness. While some candidates did not use the standard form of Maltese, others resorted to dialects and colloquial forms, even in essay writing. Furthermore, the answers lacked creativity.
Examiners also complained that some of the texts were not even legible due to poor handwriting, and that an increasing number of essays fell short of the required number of words.
Some did not use standard Maltese, others resorted to dialects and colloquialisms
“Essays were riddled with spelling mistakes, and year after year orthographical errors keep increasing. Many blame Facebook, but candidates sitting for the SEC exam must study well to avoid being influenced by the internet,” the report said.
Furthermore, some of the students failed to reproduce the title of their essay correctly, examiners remarked.
Apart from these weaknesses, a number of essays were characterised by page-long sentences with little or no punctuation and no paragraph breaks distinguishing the introduction from the body and conclusion.
For the grammar section, very few students obtained full marks, and in some cases, candidates omitted the section entirely.
An analysis of the most common errors revealed that candidates found it hard to distinguish between proper and common nouns, to the extent that no capital letters were used when writing the names of certain Maltese localities.
As was the case in previous years, the highest incidence of spelling mistakes related to words containing the silent letters ‘GĦ’ and ‘H’.
In the literature section, examiners remarked that many candidates limited themselves to recounting events rather than trying to take an analytical approach. A number of candidates studied an essay by heart and regurgitated the full text, even though it had nothing to do with the question, the report said.
As in other sections of the exam, the majority of students received no marks for orthography and grammar.