Language Proficiency, Use and Attitudes among University Students in Bilingual Malta

Abstract

The context of this study is Malta, the smallest but most densely-populated country in the European Union and one of a handful of officially-bilingual member states. The focus of this study is the student population at the University of Malta, often viewed as Malta’s elite and the country’s future leaders. It seeks to discover three main aspects: (i) their self-assessed proficiency in Maltese and English; (ii) their declared language use in different domains, and (iii) their attitudes towards Maltese and English, Malta’s official languages. This study’s findings evidence unequal proficiency levels in the two languages, particularly in speaking and writing. They also reveal that spoken use of Maltese language is prevalent in the family while English dominates communication with university lecturers and to a lesser extent with the university’s administrative staff. Furthermore, of note are students’ attitudes towards the official languages and of a selection of foreign languages (Italian, French, German, Spanish and Arabic) taught in Maltese schools: their perceptions differ from Sciriha and Vassallo (2006). Though university students still rank Maltese as the most important language for a citizen of Malta, yet from a global perspective, English and other languages are all ranked higher than Maltese.