title: Language attitudes and ideologies in Malta
title: a mixed-methods study
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Vella, Lara Ann
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2018

description: Malta’s rich history of foreign conquerors together with its small
      landmass, has fostered an enduring history of bilingualism (in Maltese and
      English) on a societal level. In light of the value and status assigned to
      these two languages, this study sets out to investigate parents’ and their
      children’s language attitudes and ideologies towards Maltese and English,
      by using qualitative and quantitative research methods. In the qualitative
      study, semi-structured interviews were carried out in 11 families, with
      parents and children (age range 8 to 15). The data show that all
      participants link use of Maltese and/or English to economic, social,
      cultural and/or linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 1991). At times, use of
      language can lead to exclusion because the participants’ language use does
      not match what is expected of them in a particular habitus (Bourdieu,
      1977). Ideologies related to social class, to language use and locality,
      and nationalistic feelings can also be traced in most interviews. At
      times, parents’ and children’s language use do not match, as different
      forms of capital are valued by these family members. The participants’
      metalinguistic talk revealed links between their identity and language use
      (Davies &amp; Harré, 1990; Bucholtz &amp; Hall, 2003; Pavlenko
      &amp; Blackledge, 2003) when they negotiate the use of Maltese and
      English in their daily interactions, and position themselves and others on
      the basis of language use. In the quantitative study, questionnaires were
      distributed to parents (N= 202) and children (N=357), coming from three
      school sectors (state, church and independent schools) in different
      geographical areas of the island (Northern, Northern Harbour, Southern
      Harbour, South Eastern and Western). Four age groups were targeted:
      adults, 14- to 15-year-olds, 11- to 12-year-olds and 8- to 9-year-olds.
      The self-reports of language use illustrate that Maltese is the prevalent
      language used in the home domain. The association between age, locality,
      mother’s employment and school sector, respectively, was significant with
      language used with mother. Nine constructs emerged from the exploratory
      factor analysis of the language attitude questionnaire. Moreover, the
      multiple regression analyses revealed that language spoken to mother and
      at school are the most influential predictor variables across all language
      attitude constructs. The data also showed that school sector and age group
      have a significant effect on most language attitude constructs. The older
      groups (adults and 14- to 15-year-olds) showed more positive attitudes to
      Maltese than the younger ones (11- to 12-year-olds and 8- to 9-yearolds),
      who demonstrated more positive attitudes to English. Significant
      differences were also found in language attitudes based on the three
      school sectors, with children attending state schools showing more
      favourable attitudes to the Maltese language constructs, those attending
      independent schools being more positive to the English language ones, and
      those attending church schools exhibiting a blend of attitudes to both
      languages. This study contributes to the theoretical debates on how
      speakers position themselves and others in their metalinguistic
      reflections (Davies &amp; Harré, 1990). The findings make an important
      contribution to the area, by highlighting the role of the languages spoken
      at home, particularly by the mother, in the development of language
      attitudes. The study also makes a unique contribution in showing how
      qualitative and quantitative paradigms can complement each other to
      provide a more holistic insight into the association between language use
      and language ideologies in Malta.