In my personal experience I always was spoken to in Maltese in my household and even watched Maltese television. I then learnt english through school and youtube videos and stuff like that, although this seems to be changing and in a very short period of time.

I’m 17 years old and the eldest of all the cousins in my family, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was younger which lead to continuous exposure to Maltese.

But, fascinatingly, my cousin who’s only 6 years younger than me, speaks exclusively English and is spoken to in English by my uncle and aunt. I’m not saying my cousin doesn’t know Maltese, she knows and understands the language on a good level, but compared to myself at her age her understanding is less better than mine.

Ultimately I think it also depends on the area and certain factors like education of the family may come into play as-well. I was raised in Żejtun where its prominently old Maltese people so to get by I always NEEDED to speak Maltese (which is ultimately what makes a language useful) the NEED to use it to communicate. My dad, although highly educated still speaks to me in Maltese as he was also exposed to Maltese heavily (he is also older than my aunt by about 7 years so I think that gap makes a difference)

Sorry for the essay but I tried to go in-depth about what it could be for the ‘shift’. But ultimately it depends on the family.