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…

Traditionally bilingual Maltese school populations are increasingly linguistically diverse, due to intensified migration flows. To shed light on central issues to be addressed by policy makers, school administrators, researchers and teacher trainers, collective beliefs of Maltese primary school teachers regarding their conceptual understanding and…

This article contributes to the limited research on teacher agency in early bilingual development and education. Through classroom observations and interviews, we examined the differential degrees of agency of two preschool teachers in Malta as they mediated languages in their bilingual classrooms. The teachers' background and language beliefs,…

This article offers a review of some of the major issues of bilingualism in education in Malta. It starts by contextualising the current situation in a historical perspective. From the macro-perspective it then moves to a micro-perspective to illustrate how, in practice, Maltese and English are used as a bilingual medium of instruction across…

In Malta, mathematics is often taught through code-switching between Maltese and English, mainly due to the use of textbooks published in the UK. The mixing of the languages has been a source of discussion for several years, with some educators accepting the mixed pattern, and others arguing in favour of using English alone. Furthermore, the…

This multidisciplinary collection examines the connections between education, migration and translation across school and higher education sectors, and a broad range of socio-geographical contexts. Organised around the themes of knowledge, language, mobility, and practice, it brings together studies from around the world to offer a timely critique…

Examines the relationship between language use in Maltese bilingual classrooms and societal contexts within which the classrooms are embedded, explaining that the use of Maltese and English for instruction reflects the functions of each language in society. Discusses code switching and terminology switching and explains how the discursive and…

Maltese and English are used as media of instruction across the curriculum in Maltese schools. It has been observed that both languages are normally used within any one lesson and, as is here illustrated by a continuum of crosslinguistic influence, they are mixed in complex ways. As within Maltese society at large, a new variety called Mixed…

Examines language practices in secondary classrooms in Malta, showing how teachers and students switch between Maltese and English to construct knowledge, interact with monolingual English texts, and interrelate. The article places these practices against the island's historical and social background to reveal that teachers use English to appear…

Chapters in this volume include the following: "Co-Constructing School Safetime: Safetalk Practices in Peruvian and South African Classrooms" (Nancy H. Hornberger, J. Keith Chick); "Codeswitching and Collusion: Classroom Interaction in Botswana Primary Schools" (Jo Arthur); "Language and Educational Inequality in Primary…