Education Act – Chapter 327 of the Laws of Malta, Legal Notice 221 of 2015 – The English Language Teaching Council Regulations: The object of these regulations is to provide for a regulatory framework for the advancement and monitoring of standards with respect to the ELT profession, Schools, English language teachers, Home Tuition Providers, Distance Learning Providers, non-academic services and ancillary services that together constitute the stay of, or the provision to, English language students, speakers of other languages.
Perhaps not the most alluring introduction to a blog post and seemingly no connection with fruit but it is a clear explanation of why Malta is THE destination of choice for so many students and organisations when they want to learn or polish their English.
Malta has a strong track record in the provision of English language tuition and is one the rare countries that regulates the teaching of English in terms of both the language schools that receive government approval, teaching qualifications and the issuing of teacher permits. It is not a country where you can just rock up and say “hey I speak English can I come and teach in your school?” as is sadly the case in many other countries. In Malta it doesn’t work that way. The industry is meticulously regulated by the ELT Council which is part of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation. Aspiring teachers have to have specified qualifications, pass the SEPTT exam and be issued with an ELT Council teaching permit. This along with other factors goes a long way towards guaranteeing the standard of the tuition that students will receive in our language schools.
The ELT Council organises an annual ELT Malta Conference. The 12th edition was held on October 20th and 21st this year in the beautiful old university building in Valletta. Whilst most delegates were from Malta some participants had flown in from Belarus, the UK and Greece.
Speakers and workshop leaders from various countries led the 23 workshops on topics as diverse as a consideration of verb tenses in English, using TikTok in the classroom, English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) presented by Evan Frendo, translanguaging in the classroom, the use of storytelling by the one and only Alan Marsh; how women’s issues can be explored through drama-based pedagogy and from Kevin Spiteri AI in the classroom.
There was truly something for everyone and lots of new things to discover and learn more about. Coffee breaks and lunch time provided opportunities to connect with former colleagues, old friends and make new acquaintances.
The second of the three plenary sessions was given by Maltalingua’s very own teacher trainer, Paul Atkins, who in 2022 was awarded the Inspiring ELT Professional Award by the ELT Council.
Paul’s very engaging, and ofttimes cripplingly humorous talk, on Excellence in ELT combined information, questions for us all to reflect on and encouraged us to discuss those questions with the person sitting next to us.
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The second of the three plenary sessions was given by Maltalingua’s very own teacher trainer, Paul Atkins, who in 2022 was awarded the Inspiring ELT Professional Award by the ELT Council.
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As to the fruit… the conference concluded with a plenary session on eclecticism where Leo Selivan took us on a journey through the history of ELT methodologies using images and video clips and likening each method to a particular fruit. It’s always tough to be the last speaker at the end of a full day but he kept our attention inviting us to consider which of the methodologies we still make use of and thus to what extent we’re eclectic in our teaching methods, or more precisely, whether our teaching methods are like a fruit salad or a bowl of fruit. And what are YOU? a fruit salad with everything mixed up or a bowl of fruit where you judiciously select the appropriate method for each element you want to teach taking into account the learner’s level, motivation, challenges and so forth? |
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Maltalingua teachers are definitely bowls of fruit adjusting content delivery to suit the learning needs of our students. Maybe you’d like to join us? MaltaLingua is always interested in receiving CVs