The ghost of the “language question” still haunts the local educational system, with 54% of fifth form students being exposed only to English and Italian at school. Less than half – 46% – choose different languages, despite the recent increase in available options including Spanish, German and Russian.
Once the language of the Maltese elite who refused to submit to colonial efforts to encourage the teaching of English, Italian is now the automatic choice for students who get their first exposure to Malta’s third language on TV.
While 61% of students learn Italian in their last year of secondary school, only 28% take French, 12% German and 6% Spanish.
Despite the hype over the Dubai-based Smart City investment, Arabic lags behind all other languages except Russian. A compulsory University qualification in Mintoff’s time, Arabic is now only being thought to eight students, while the number of students doing Russian is just three.
Girls tend to be more adventurous than boys in their language choices. While 62% of fifth form girls learn a foreign language other than Italian or English, only 31% of boys at the same level do likewise.
The least adventurous in language choices are boys in area secondary schools. Only 21% of boys who do not make it to junior lyceum learn French, German or Spanish. Only four of them learn Arabic, and only one is currently learning Russian.
Again it is the girls who tend to be the most adventurous in language choices in junior lyceums. In this category French emerges as a more popular language choice than Italian. While 51% of females in junior lyceums are learning French, only 41% are leaning Italian. German is the choice of 20% while 13% are learning Spanish.
While English is compulsory in all schools, Italian is considered easier to learn due to widespread exposure to Italian TV stations.

jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt