Week 13: Back to reality!

After saying goodbye to all my visitors and with tutors now starting to hand out assignment details it was definitely time to get stuck back into reality. With the sun beaming it has been quite hard to get motivated to make a start on assignments with my natural feeling wanting to stay outside and make the most of the sunshine as we rarely see it in Northern Ireland, however I have to keep reminding myself that I’m in Malta and that if it’s not sunny tomorrow, no doubt it will be the next day.

Missing these guys!!

We had our first day of placement this week, were Rachel and myself were placed in the same class which was quite unusual and different to what I am used to back home. We were put in a Year 3 class of children who were 7 or 8 years old, the equivalent to Primary 4 in Northern Ireland. This is my favourite age group to work with as I find that children are starting to become more independent however still need direction and help from you. The classroom and timetable are quite similar to one you would find at home however Maltese is also taught, through which Rachel and myself had little input and became more like the pupils in the class. We have now learnt some Maltese vocabulary and the difference between some singular and plural words. For example, ice-cream is gelat in Maltese and the plural is gelati. I found it interesting to note that the whole year group is split according to ability for Maltese lessons. The teacher explained that this is because there are a lot of international children who have little or no Maltese compared to children who have been brought up in Malta and have been emerged in the language since they were born.

Gelati

Gelat

After having visited Sicily over the Easter holidays I have definitely taken for granted that Maltese people are bi-lingual and speak English so well. In Northern Ireland the majority of the teacher’s time is spent teaching either Mathematics and Numeracy or Language and Literacy, I observed in the Maltese classroom that there is a large emphasis placed on these too however they also have Maltese amongst their core subjects. Gordon (2007) makes the argument that children learn second languages more easily when they are younger as they are still learning their first language resulting in it being more natural for them compared to when adults learn a second language. This raises the question of placing a higher emphasis on second language learning in the primary Northern Ireland Curriculum, especially as our world continues to become more globalised. After living in the University Residence amongst lots of international students who all speak English it has certainly made me wish I had more opportunities in learning a second language at a younger age, whilst also wishing I had put more effort and work in when learning French at Secondary School.