<div dir="ltr"><h1>[WATCH] Education minister Evarist Bartolo: ‘Bilingualism part of Maltese identity’</h1>
<h2><p>Education minister says that exposure to two languages helps
children's development and is at the core of Malta's economic success</p></h2>
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<div class="gmail-name">Yannick Pace </div> <div class="gmail-date">28 September 2016, 10:26am</div>
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<div class="gmail-inner">Minister Bartolo at the Language Policy launch • Photo by Chris Mangion</div>
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<div class="gmail-inner">Education minister says exposure to two languages helps children's development • Video by Chris Mangion</div>
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A
language policy for the early years in a child's life was launched this
morning by Education minister Evarist Bartolo.
<br><br> At an event to celebrate
different languages Bartolo said the country still has a lot of work
left to do in strengthening the levels of both English and Maltese and
even more work to do when it comes to young people learning a third
language.
<br><br> Bartolo rubbished the
outdated notion that exposure to more than one language at a young age
confuses children and cited a number of studies which have in fact shown
that this sort of exposure actually helps cognitive development and
children's overall learning abilities.
<br><br> The policy is intended to
provide national guidelines for bilingual education at a young age by
fostering a positive attitude towards both English and Maltese. It
includes recommendations and guidelines for parents and teachers,
childcare administrators as well as those training educators.
<br><br> Bartolo spoke of how both
English and Maltese are a part of the country’s identity and how both
are crucial to the country’s success. He said that we must overcome
stigma towards people who speak a different language adding that whether
or not Maltese is a person’s first language is irrelevant because we
are not a bilingual country simply on paper.
<br><br> "The fact that someone is
from a particular locality or is part of a social group does not matter.
At the end of the day we need to accept the reality and tailor our
efforts to that reality," said the minister.
<br><br> Bartolo explained how it
would be a shame if Malta were to lose its ability to communicate in
more than one language and stressed that the fact that most people can
speak English gives the country a competitive advantage and is a part of
the reason foreign companies choose to invest in Malta.
<br><br> Among the guidelines in the
policy are fostering positive attitudes towards multilingualism,
consistently exposing children to Maltese and English and working with
educators to identify appropriate strategies and resources for bilingual
language use in schools. <br><a href="http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/70024/bartolo_bilingualism_is_a_part_of_our_identity#.V-vWrK37e-c">http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/70024/bartolo_bilingualism_is_a_part_of_our_identity#.V-vWrK37e-c</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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