From Mr P. Apap Bologna

I am grateful to Paul Spiteri and Jane Galea for alerting me to certain aspects of the teaching of ‘A’ Level English in Gozo. I was not aware that just four teachers teach the ‘A’ Level syllabus, and therefore I regret that my remarks could have been interpreted personally. I am sincerely sorry if I caused offence and offer my apologies.

I am also sorry that the general point of my letter in response to Josanne Cassar’s article of 25 May was misinterpreted or ignored by my friends in Gozo (for I do hope we will be friends).

It is the level of “spoken” English about which I am concerned, and by this I do not mean “accent” or “intonation”. I believe that different accents and intonations add colour and life to a language. Which spoken English is more delightful than Jamaican? Or which more dissonant than Belfast? I am referring to the poor standard in Malta of English spoken as a means of communication.

I am most certainly not a “self-appointed expert”. If I thought I was an expert I would hardly, at the age of 66, have enrolled in a demanding TEFL course. Nor am I generally considered to be “blindingly stupid”, as implied. As I said earlier I’m sorry to have upset teachers in Gozo, when that was not at all my intention, though I do think that four “verys” in a short sentence emphasising my mental defects is somewhat over the top, even under the influence of rage and umbrage!

Good ‘A’ level results have become so commonplace that major universities in Britain are said to be imposing an entrance exam, as ‘A’ levels are no longer considered to be reliable measures of students’ competence and levels of knowledge. It is generally acknowledged that most students who achieve passes at ‘A’ level in a foreign language are, on the whole, incapable of communication in the spoken language, be it English, Spanish, French or other. I mention this as I was in no way casting doubt on the success rates of Maltese and Gozitan students in passing their ‘A’ levels. Nor am I surprised that the Gozitans do better!

The point I am trying to make is that while English is taught well at the grammatical and literary level, it is being badly taught at the spoken and creative level – in other words at the “communicative” level. I suggested in my letter of 1 June that, “it may be necessary to accept that English is now a foreign language in Malta, and should be taught as such”.

I ask Paul Spiteri and Jane Galea, how many of their students speak English as their first language? Do they speak it at home at all? Is it possible that teachers are inevitably drawn into explaining in Maltese, as their students’ listening and speaking skills are not up to scratch? Is it possible that some teachers may also need to brush up those skills? If these conditions prevail, then surely logic suggests that English should be taught as a foreign language.

I recently worked with a young man preparing for ‘A’ level English. I was impressed by his literary research and his essays on Steinbeck, Wilfred Owen, and King Lear among others. We did just a little polishing together. After the exams, he applied to join a TEFL course, for which he wrote a piece about “My Favourite Teacher”. He was rather pleased with it, but when I saw it I was dismayed for it just wasn’t written in modern colloquial English. We went through it together and he immediately understood that people today do not speak like Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, or indeed King Lear. He rewrote the piece in English “as she is spoke today”, and it was fine. He had never been taught at school, for instance, about contractions such as “I’ll” or “I’m”.

In conclusion, I would encourage teachers of English who have not already done so, to learn to TEFL.

Peter Apap Bologna

SLIEMA