The Times of Malta – Staff Writer
“One of the greatest benefits for a child learning a foreign language is that of becoming aware of cultures distinct from one’s own. This is especially true for children living in a small country such as Malta. Even though the island’s demography has become much more heterogeneous in recent decades, it is still very homogenised. Today, being fluent in only one (and, to a certain extent, two) languages seems to be the exception rather than the rule given that many languages are spoken in the vast majority of classrooms in European countries, and Maltese classrooms are no exception. It is becoming almost impossible to find a classroom in which all students speak the same language. This makes it essential to find ways of addressing issues and challenges arising from diverse populations and multilingual and multicultural settings that were formerly unknown to primary classrooms.”(more)