English, Italian and other languages : language proficiency skills among tertiary-educated students in bilingual Malta

Abstract

This paper reports on students' language use and language proficiency within the microcosmic setting of the University of Malta. It also examines and interprets their self-reported proficiency skills in Malta's two official languages: English and Maltese. In addition, this paper focusses on Italian, which up to 1934 was Malta's official language, and compares the students' levels of proficiency and use of this language with another three foreign languages namely French, German and Spanish which are also taught in schools. The findings reveal disparate levels between English and Maltese as a group. A larger gap exists between them and the foreign languages under study. Interestingly, Italian stands out as the third language in Malta's linguistic panorama of languages.