Thus far in my study of Maltese, I have noticed that there are a lot of inconsistencies within the structure of language. It has been a little bit difficult to observe common patterns because of the influence of so many different cultures. It is a bit tricky to anticipate the suffixes and prefixes of words, considering a large percentage of them are adapted from Italian and French. I am currently working on pronunciation, the alphabet, numbers, and basic greeting words/phrases. I have not yet advanced into verb conjugations, but I anticipate that it will be a bit difficult. In contrast to broader vocabulary, though, I discovered that the numeric system was fairly simple to learn. The endings and syntax for combining multi-digit numbers were completely unfamiliar, but I was able to pick it up.
In reference to Jean Aitchison’s linguistic diagram for structures, I decided to start my learning at the beginning of the circle with phonetics. I am placing a lot of emphasis on this component because the pronunciation of letters and being able to interpret the new sounds has been a challenge for me. I have noted that during my study of Spanish, pronunciation and dialect really hindered my progress, so I want to prevent this obstacle from getting in the way again. I have seen a few basic phrases and sentences, but I have skipped over the next circle, syntax, in order to start learning the meaning of basic words. To facilitate learning word meaning, semantics, I practiced learning the alphabet with images of words beginning with each respective letter. This learning method was very effective for me because I am a visual learner. I combined this practice with listening to YouTube videos for proper pronunciation of words, which was very successful. Looking forward, I would like to continue with learning methods that apply various media outlets.
At this point in my study, one thing I think I can do a bit more of is incorporate the anthropological linguistic and sociolinguistic learning approaches. One of my primary goals in studying Maltese is simultaneously learning more about Malta as a country. These past two weeks I focused heavily on the basics, but I would like to move forward with learning more vocabulary through reading literature, poetry, and basic Maltese texts. I believe that I may give preferences to these two approaches, but this is okay in the early stages of my language plan. In order to study the historical transition of language over time, or the stylistics of a new language, I need to first get a solid foundation of the basics.
Knowledge of the language structures and different disciplinary approaches remind me the importance of keeping my learning plan multidimensional. As we have discussed many times, it is very easy to begin a new language and get caught up in the literal translations. Reading Jean Aitchison’s paper helped reinforce to me that learning a new language needs to be holistic. Rather than delaying my next steps any longer, I will move forward this week with beginning to practice reading Maltese texts. I think this will be positive because this is often, also, how children learn to speak their first language. By reading books and practicing the pronunciation with pictures and translations, I can make good progress in multiple areas. In addition, we have discussed how people are often uncomfortable beginning to simply speak the language in the proper dialect, so reading aloud will help me to overcome this hesitation.
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