Getting in Touch with the ‘Target Audience’
Took for me a while to do this, but finally found some time to Jennifer Auer, my colleague that I mention time and again that inspired the idea for this project. I should have done this a long time ago, but finally I got to it. Below you can find the audio clip of the conversation and I will also talk about the points that were brought up in the conversation.
Just to give a quick background, she is a mother of a six-year-old boy who is in the first grade and he is in a class of 12, and 6 boys are Maltese, 2 Germans (him included), 2 Swedes, 1 Italian and 1 Russian.
We got straight to the point where I explained what the project is, at which point I am now and the whole point of me speaking with her. We started off by discussing the class structure and also the Maltese language lessons in the classroom. She explained that her son learns Maltese along with the other students and that he does not take extra classes during or after school. When it came to homework, I learned that the textbooks are in Maltese, beginning to end. This imposes an issue for both the child and the parent are not native/proficient speaker of the language.
She continued to describe how they went about doing their homework. She pointed out that translation sources are quite limited when it comes the Maltese language, to which I fully agree, as I myself find it difficult to get results when I am looking for a digital Maltese dictionary or even use Google Translate to look up technical words. Jennifer continued by adding that this lack of translation resources is one of the reasons for lack of engagement. In addition to that, the fact that English is also a native language, people would simply take the easier route.
Another thing that she mentioned was that many expats in Malta are not here for the long term, meaning that many do not identify an actual use for the language. It is true that the language is only spoken on the island, so unless the family is planning to settle down for the long term, they can easily get by with English. Even when it comes to legal and registration documents, or bank forms, they are all available in English, as per EU regulation.
When it came to children specifically, she made an interesting remark regarding their native languages. While she agreed that children do pick up languages very quickly, she pointed out that certain children pick up Maltese faster, particularly children with Semitic languages as their native language. That being said, it is quite phenomenal how children can have a conversation without necessarily understanding each other word for word.
Some Personal Thoughts
It was an interesting conversation indeed. I did learn a lot with regards to the typical scenario of a classroom nowadays. Particularly when it came to the classroom environment when there is a mixture of native and expatriate students in one class, and the Maltese language lesson is conducted fully in Maltese.
On a separate note, I do need to look at the project in a different way. As many expats are unlikely to settle on the island for the long term, I do not think that a language learning tool would be that useful. Something along the lines of a translator or some form of activity that would engage the children and parent would be more useful, and it would double as some family bonding time. As the end of this phase approaches, I need to start thinking on some possible outcomes. I had a couple of ideas, but following this talk as well as the panel feedback, I have some “criteria” that I can build my research on.
