A new educational video series has been launched on social media to tackle the growing concern that young Maltese children are learning basic vocabulary exclusively in English, leaving key Maltese words feeling alien or foreign to them.
Żbrixx is an animated cartoon character through which the National Council for the Maltese Language hopes to fill a crucial gap in educational resources for young children by providing high-quality, engaging Maltese content comparable to what is available online in English.
The series, which premiered on social media last week, is part of a wider chain of efforts by various entities to support the language in the digital age, a critical battleground for the future of Maltese.
One of the researchers behind the initiative is university lecturer and professor Michael Spagnol, who said that for many Maltese children today, words for simple concepts – like colours, fruits, vegetables, body parts, animals, and transport – are being absorbed first, and sometimes exclusively, in English.
This trend risks relegating the Maltese equivalent to a secondary, less-familiar language.
He said in other cases, several young Maltese children may know the Maltese words for animals, for instance, but not for their young.
“They’ll know a dog is a kelb, but if you ask them what their offspring is called in Maltese, they’ll only be able to say ‘puppy’. They won’t know it’s ġeru,’ he said.
“Others become very good at identifying colours in English at a young age but cannot do it as quickly in Maltese.”
This phenomenon could be rooted in history, Spagnol said, in a long-standing practice where parents who only had a basic grasp of English would teach the few words they knew to their children as early on as possible, hoping it would give them an advantage in the modern world.
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The practice persisted, and the lack of appealing and attractive resources to teach basic vocabulary in Maltese further compounds the problem, he said. Furthermore, Maltese has a richer structure, including gendered nouns, which can make it more challenging for young children and requires slower, more deliberate exposure for them to internalise.
While primarily designed for young children, the series’ clear and thematic structure is equally useful for older learners looking to build their Maltese vocabulary.
Each video focuses on a specific theme, such as colours, means of transport, or fruits and vegetables, introducing new words through engaging content.
The videos feature lively illustrations and smooth animation by Alfie Gatt, and the episodes unfold with the friendly voices of Thomas Camilleri and Elaine Saliba Bonnici, following scripts by Thomas Pace and Spagnol himself, designed to keep the language clear and easy to follow.
The episodes are available on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.