With growing fears about falling rates of language proficiency among young people, one businessman makes the case for speaking both well

Despite his gentlemanly charm, John de Giorgio takes a hard line on applicants who are not adequately bilingual when recruiting employees for his software company.

“We find we cannot select certain people because their level of English is going to hold them back.

“We would be unable to expose them to international clients,” the chairman of the English-Speaking Union (ESU) said.

“People who are competent in both English and Maltese are much more desirable to employers.”

This may sound obvious but there is growing alarm in some quarters about deteriorating language standards in Malta.

The ESU requested an interview because it shared the concerns of Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, who recently told this newspaper that the country was in danger of becoming monolingual in Maltese.

The Constitution decrees that Maltese is the country’s national language while Maltese and English are both classed as its official languages.

Mr de Giorgio said there was no in-depth research on the fluctuation in English proficiency over the years, “but the feeling one gets is the standard has deteriorated”.

He qualified this by saying that more Maltese people were now speaking English, which was positive. Previously English was generally spoken by the upper and upper-middle classes.

The chairman said this was the result of the transition from industrial to service employment over the past 40 years, meaning more people were required to speak English at work.

“One is noticing that English is not quite as it should be. Previously we would not have noticed,” Mr de Giorgio said.

The businessman wished to stress that the ESU did not want to diminish the status of the national language.

“Our strategy is to encourage bilingualism; we are not a group of Anglophiles trying to make people speak English instead of Maltese,” he said.

“We Maltese are very good at reacting to a financial stimulus. People need to understand that if their kids are not competent in English, they will not advance in their careers. Similarly, people who are not competent in Maltese will be disadvantaged.”

He described tourism, iGaming, pharmaceuticals, financial services and IT as the financial pillars on which the country now rests.

“If we want to grow those industries, competency in English needs to grow alongside that.

“Competency in Maltese also needs to continue to be built. The notion of ‘either or’ is ludicrous,” the chairman said.

He pointed out that mobility was also enhanced by being able to speak English fluently, as it enabled Maltese people to get by in many countries around the world.

If kids are not competent in English, they will not advance in their careers

While recognising that some Maltese attach a stigma to their countrymen who speak English, the ESU thinks there was growing ‘grassroots’ realisation about the benefits of bilingualism.

The union has been running a pilot project called ‘Arm of Support’ at Żabbar Primary School A since 2009.

This compulsory programme exposes students aged three to seven to the English language through play.

“We have been surprised by the phenomenal level of acceptance by the parents. They may not openly say it as there is political baggage.

“But some parents have even enrolled in English classes themselves so they are able to help their children improve their English,” the chairman said.

The programme was partly devised by the ESU’s education director Yvette Micallef, who said children did not attach any stigma to languages.

“If you speak to them in English they respond in English, if you speak in Maltese they respond in Maltese.

“We want both languages to become part of who they are,” Ms Micallef said.

Tutors from the ESU conduct the sessions alongside the school’s teachers, who have also been pleased with the results of the programme, Ms Micallef said.

“They comment that the students are now speaking much more English than they did 10 years ago,” she said.

Students in Kinder 1 and Year 1 had a one-hour session each week, while sessions for Kinder 2 and Year 2 students lasted for 30-45 minutes each week.

“Some parents have been unhappy because they actually wanted more sessions,” Ms Micallef said.

Although the ESU does not have the resources to roll out this project nationwide, it has commissioned the University’s Centre for English Language Proficiency to conduct a formal impact assessment of the programme.

The results will be passed to the supportive Education Ministry, who may use them to introduce the programme nationally.

Mr de Giorgio dismissed the argument that English language proficiency among children would be to the detriment of Maltese.

“All the research is completely contrary. It is very clear people who are bilingual increase their cognitive skills as well as language skills.

“People who are trilingual even more so,” he said.

Headquartered in London, the ESU is active in more than 50 countries.

It aims to promote “international understanding and friendship through the use of the English language”.

In addition to its Arm of Support programme, the ESU runs debating and public speaking programmes in secondary schools, and academies on the same disciplines for post-secondary students.