/library/oar/handle/123456789/1047 Wed, 24 Dec 2025 20:58:35 GMT 2025-12-24T20:58:35Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138509 Title: Indirectness in a Maltese school setting Abstract: This dissertation investigates the role of indirectness in a Maltese educational setting, focusing on its use among female and male educators to determine who is more indirect. The study also explores how indirectness is perceived by both educators and learners: as a sign of power or weakness? Additionally, it categorises the types of indirect speech acts used in the classroom, identifying the most common uses according to gender. The research was conducted in an independent school in Malta where students follow the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP). A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving a self-administered questionnaire completed by participants, followed by lesson observations. In the final stage, a focus group with educators was conducted. Both the lesson observations and the focus group were recorded and transcribed to identify the direct and indirect linguistic strategies used by both genders. Contrary to many previous studies positing that women’s language is more characterised by indirect forms, this study found that female educators were generally more direct than their male counterparts. However, the findings also indicated that gender is just one of many factors that contribute to the choice of indirect strategies in the classroom. Description: M.A.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/138509 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138491 Title: The impact of COVID-19 restrictions on linguistic development in children as seen in educational settings, with a specific focus on the mask mandate and nation-wide lockdowns Abstract: Child language acquisition is a multimodal process aided by several factors. These include interlocutor variability, exposure to new environments, and the opportunity for children to be exposed to as much speech as possible. School offers a linguistically stimulating environment where children are provided with the necessary tools for linguistic development. However, this changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, resulting in the implementation of various restrictions and remote education. This research seeks to explore if restrictions like social distancing, distant learning, and the mask mandate resulted in any regressions when it comes to child language acquisition. The following research questions will be examined within this study: (i) How was children’s linguistic development affected by COVID-19 restrictions? (ii) Do teachers believe that mask-wearing created a more difficult environment for children to learn and progress linguistically in the classroom? A qualitative approach was employed by means of semi-structured interviews to seek to address the set research questions. Through the chosen research instrument, it was established that COVID-19 restrictions had critical effects on students’ language development within classroom settings. Vocabulary development, bilingualism, pronunciation, and written language regressed during the pandemic, with some difficulties still being prevalent after restrictions were lifted. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/138491 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138490 Title: Investigating motivation in two groups of English language learners : migrant workers and foreign students in Malta Abstract: This dissertation investigates motivation in two groups of English language learners, that is, migrant workers and foreign students in Malta, in relation to the research question: ‘What are the Similarities and Variances Between the Motivation of Migrant Workers and Foreign Students in Malta?’. This study adopts a qualitative approach, collecting data through the research instrument of semi-structured interviews from five foreign students and four migrant workers. As it is a qualitative approach, the interviews elicited rich data and were semi-structured to encourage more in-depth responses. The data collected suggests that despite the different categorisations, migrant workers and foreign students share a lot of similarities when learning a foreign language. Data also found that there are a few differences between migrants and foreign students, usually directly related to the different contexts the participants found themselves in. In conclusion, motivation clearly plays a major role in learning a language. Although some variances were mentioned among the two sets of language learners, there were mainly similarities. This seems to suggest that learning a language is not so much based on the category of the learner, as there will always be individual differences, but more so on the language chosen to be learnt. English is a globalised language and so is recognised universally for its importance. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/138490 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/138488 Title: Singing inside the gap : the orphic motif in Don Paterson's poetry Abstract: The figure of Orpheus—the mythical poet and musician who descends into the underworld to retrieve his beloved Eurydice—has long served as an archetype for literary and artistic figures in their engagement with mortality and existence. Orpheus’s journey comes to represent the poet’s attempt to transcend the boundaries of life and death, to articulate the ineffable, and to cultivate existential meaning. In contemporary poetry, few writers engage with the Orphic myth as profoundly as Scottish poet Don Paterson, whose work concerns the existential anxieties, limitations of humanity, and the potential of poetry and music to reconcile these issues. This dissertation examines this potential of poetry to reconcile the overarching tensions between the infinite and finite, absence and presence, and death and life. This work demonstrates how Paterson’s oeuvre transforms the Orphic myth into a framework for confronting the modern existential condition, where the poem becomes both a failed redemption [the lost Eurydice] and a fleeting consoling act. This dissertation also explores how Paterson’s engagement with the Orphic myth addresses the most pressing existential anxieties of contemporary times and offers ways of coming to terms with them. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT /library/oar/handle/123456789/138488 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z