You can learn a language by watching television (and change pronunciation in the process)
What is an internationally not well-known possibility is that you apparently can learn a language just by watching TV because it’s the most interesting TV available.
Older generations informally acquired Italian by watching Italian television.
Today, younger Maltese are not doing the same and are, in fact, far more exposed to English-language media. The researchers set out to determine whether this shift has influenced the way younger Maltese speakers pronounce the R sound – a consonant known for being one of the most variable and easily influenced across world languages.
Maltese audiences have been exposed to Italian since the early 20th century, with Italian radio transmissions reaching the island as early as the 1930s. By 1957, one of the first television broadcasts to be aired in Malta came from Rai in Sicily. Malta’s own television broadcasts only began five years later, in 1962, with the launch of the Malta Television Service, later known as TVM.
In contrast, younger Maltese audiences have grown up immersed in English-language content, largely due to the influence of YouTube and other digital platforms. Channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, and various BBC outlets like CBeebies were staples of their childhood media consumption.
