Going about the Logistics of the Project
Following the submission of my proposal, my plan is to go through the contact list of relevant people and split them between entity representatives, individuals (teachers, employers, etc.) and draft some questions that I would like to ask them. During this first phase of the project, I have already contacted a couple of these entities asking them about their work at present as an entity and also asked around to see what sort of learning resources are out there already when it comes to Maltese language learning. Currently still waiting for a response from the entities, however I got a very good response from the Facebook group. I learned about a lot of learning resources which I did not know that existed.
Following this mailing exercise and whilst I am waiting for a reply, I am going to start some desk research and background reading. I will be looking at what other countries that are experiencing a decrease in the number of speakers of the respective native language and see how they reacted to minimize the issue and attempts at solving it. As part of this desk research, I will be looking also at general benefits of language learning, language teaching methods and also different ways of how people engage to a foreign culture.
A survey with expatriates will also help me in gather better insight with regards to the Maltese language and culture from a ‘new speaker’ perspective. I will need to allow some time to formulate this survey in order to yield good and useful results. In addition to a survey, I would like to interview some people – this can include TEFL teachers, some expatriates who have been here for different periods of time – someone who has been here for a few months and another who has been here for a few years. In addition to this, I still have to look into government entities and see which ones are the most relevant to speak to for this project. At the moment, the Ministry of Education and the MHAL are the most relevant at the moment. This can give me better insight on what the state is doing and whether there are issues and how they are being addressed.
As the third phase of the project would then be approaching, I have to prepare some possible ideas for outcomes as I need to present this as part of a case study. I have done some brainstorming around this part of the project, and I seem to revolve around the idea of a marketing campaign of some sort. Thanks to the discussions and suggestions with peers and tutors, the cultural aspect of Malta will help in beefing up this project and make room for a more creative outcome.
For this second half of this proposal document, it depends a lot on the deliverable I will be producing. At this point in time, I just consolidated the research question and the aims behind the project. That said, some preliminary research should give me a better idea for a tangible outcome. I will be discussing this with my tutor later on this evening, along with the logistics plan. This was meant to be it, but ended up being a retelling of my thoughts in written format.
