Mathematics education in post-colonial Malta is experienced bilingually by teachers and students. I was recently involved in the publication of a bilingual (English / Maltese) glossary of mathematics terms relevant to early childhood and elementary classes. Work on the glossary involved compiling already existing Maltese mathematics terms and also…

This paper discusses the role of the Catholic Church amongst the Maltese diaspora in Australia, and its impact on the maintenance of the Maltese language, a small community language spoken largely by the first generation of immigrants who left Malta after the Second World War. The study is based on interview data collected among three generations…

Despite growing research on individual differences in child bilinguals, few studies have focused on the development of syntax, included both languages, and studied newly arrived school-age migrant children. Accordingly, this study investigated the syntactic development of heritage language (HL) Syrian Arabic and L2 English by Syrian refugee…

This study proposes "grounding" as a theoretical approach to studying linguistic landscape (LL). Grounding is the positioning or sequencing of languages in a multilingual 'text' to reveal the languages' relevance or a community's association with the languages. The study explores language grounding in church names which constitute part…

The present study endeavors to investigate the learning of the comprehension of semantic interpretation of metaphor in the expository writing by EFL learners at Albalqa Applied University, Jordan. Moreover, the study attempts to see the role of mother tongue influences in the learning and comprehension of semantic interpretation of metaphor in…

The field of L2 phonology did not receive much research compared to the other linguistic domains. To add to the field and expand the current literature, the present paper's goal was to examine the impact of syllable structure differences between Arabic and English in uttering L2 English consonant clusters. The following research question was aimed…

The extant studies addressing second language phonetic perception assume that second language phonemes are perceived to be similar to first language phonemes, and tend to be substituted by learners of English as a foreign language. This study aimed to assess the perceptual relationship between the phonemes of English and the sound units of Omani…

This study investigates interpreting directionality and interpreting competence of undergraduate interpreting students. It tried to answer the following questions: (i) Is there a significant difference between the beginners and advanced students' skills in Liaison interpreting from English to Arabic and Arabic to English, with Arabic as their L1…

Consequently, the present study sheds light on a very important aspect that is a contrastive analysis of segmental vowel phonemes of both L1 and L2. As one of the problems, that is affecting the teaching/learning process of ELT. Then to clarify the different areas between the segmental vowel phonemes of Arabic and English. It also aims at making a…

This qualitative, exploratory research study is positioned within the field of Family Language Policy (FLP). Contextualised in bilingual Malta, where Maltese is the majority language, the study inquires into the effects of a plurilingual family language programme on the language ideologies within English-speaking Maltese families. The programme…

Multilingualism has established itself as a separate area of research in linguistic studies for the two last decades. Therefore, the present study aims at examining Algerian Multilingual students' perceptions of linguistic distance i.e., "psychotypology," between their first Language Arabic and Second language French and third language…

The study tested whether cognitive retroactive transfer (CRT) of language skills from English to Hebrew takes place; specifically, whether an improvement in linguistic and meta-linguistic skills in English as a foreign language (FL) would lead to an improvement in these skills in Hebrew as the first language (L1). The participants consisted of 124…

It is agreed that, if instruction in mathematics takes place in the students' first language, understanding abstract concepts and ideas in that subject can be challenging for them. However, many Jordanian students must master mathematics only via a second language or side by side with mastering it in Arabic, depending on their school system. The…

Language learners' actual speech performances constitute an essential aspect of studies on second language learning and teaching. Although there is ample research on fluency and pauses in English, current literature does not touch on this issue from a multilingual perspective by comparing both read and spontaneous speech performances. In this…

This paper reports on a study that examined a Shared Education program recently implemented in Israel based on the Northern Ireland model. Sixth-grade children from two schools -- one Jewish and one Arab, who study in separate education systems and have very limited contacts with one another -- met to learn English (as an additional language)…