The Honorable Minister of Education and Employment, Mr Evarist Bartolo, presided the first SPA certificate giving ceremony held at St Ignatius College Boys’ Sec School. A total of 70 students were awarded a certificate in one or more Italian language skills at Level 1 of the MQF (Malta Qualifications Framework). The programme, designed, developed and led by Dr Mario Pace from the Faculty of Education and which will eventually be offered on a national basis, is presently targeting students who are at great risk of not obtaining a level-rated certification in foreign language/s at the end of compulsory schooling. They are offered the possibility of obtaining proficiency qualifications and certificates as an alternative route concurrent with that of SEC.
During the past scholastic year, this home-grown curricular programme was piloted with the Italian language in two different State schools namely, St Ignatius College Boys’ Secondary and Maria Regina College Girls’ Secondary schools. A total of 77 Form 3 students participated in the programme and were offered a special programme of studies for Italian at Level 1 (MQF). At the end of the scholastic year these students sat for SPA Level 1 (MQF) National exam. The examination consisted of four different papers, one for each basic language skill, namely Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Each paper received a separate mark giving the students the opportunity to obtain a certificate indicating the marks and the Level obtained for each of the skills for the language being studied. The results obtained by the students were very encouraging and exceeded expectations. In fact, 26% of the students obtained certification in all the 4 language skills, 27% obtained certification in 3 skills, another 26% obtained certification in 2 skills and another 12 % obtained certification in 1 skill.
An important innovative aspect in the SPA programme, which, as from this scholastic year, has been extended also to French and German and is being implemented in 4 state schools and 6 Church schools, is the introduction of the notion of assessment for learning. In fact continuous assessment methods are used to gauge a student's progress over a period of time in various language learning contexts. This means that at the end of the programme of studies at any particular level, 20% of the final mark for each of the 4 skills will be awarded on the basis of the student’s performance throughout the programme. In this way, by using a combination of testing instruments the assessment process becomes more valid and reliable, whilst, at the same time, helps promote positive student involvement. Assessment for learning is incorporated fully into instruction: there is no time lost on assessment since every learning experience, activity, student’s action is considered as evidence and therefore gives the opportunity to both teacher and learner to act upon it.
The SPA programme introduced as from September 2014 has the intent to set up a home-grown alternative assessment based on subject proficiency at levels 1, 2 and 3 of the MQF. The SPA certificate seeks to provide a clear description of what individuals ‘can do’ with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context. The main scope of the programme is to enable learners acquire and develop a communicative competence which allows for an effective and meaningful interaction in diversified social contexts. S/he will also develop skills, language and attitudes required for further study of the language, work and leisure.
