Italian Schools and New Linguistic Minorities: Nationality Vs. Plurilingualism. Which Ways and Methodologies for Mapping these Contexts?

According to the latest findings of the MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research), Alunni con cittadinanza non italiana 2004-2005 (MIUR, October 2005), 4.2% of the school population in Italy is made up of non-Italian citizens, with no reference to students who have one Italian parent or adopted children. These findings show that schools have become multilingual, not so much or solely because of the proposed linguistic offerings, nor for the linguistic heritage of Italian-speakers, which alternates among dialect, regional Italian and standard Italian, but mostly because of the dimension created by the contacts developed between different linguistic and cultural heritages. The paper aims at emphasizing and showing different ways for mapping the role played and the weight exercised by these “new linguistic minorities” – (defined as such) so-called because they are related to immigrant settlements in the territory and, hence, “immigrant languages” – in redefining the linguistic landscape of a school and of a territory.Language Contact, Immigrant Languages, School System, Linguistic-Cultural Identity

La rivisitazione del curriculo in ottica CLIL

The integration of CLIL programmes in the curriculum implies substantial choices that each teacher often performs individually, in the absence of ministerial directives that indicate which topics or contents to focus on. The present study aimed at investigating how CLIL teachers are addressing this need, what kind of factual selection they make both at the level of the disciplinary syllabus and at the level of the general curriculum, what guides their choices and what their motivations are. The objective of the research was to possibly identify commonalities that could sustain new CLIL teachers in their future curricular planning

"L’ALTROPARLANTE". RICERCA, SPERIMENTAZIONE E DIDATTICA PLURILINGUE NELLA SCUOLA PRIMARIA E SECONDARIA: IL COINVOLGIMENTO DELLE FAMIGLIE FRA APPROCCIO INTERCULTURALE E TRANSLANGUAGING

Il concetto di translanguaging come pratica didattica è da alcuni anni al centro del dibattito accademico internazionale nei campi della sociolinguistica e della linguistica educativa. Le sue sperimentazioni in contesto scolastico, in una cornice di valorizzazione del plurilinguismo e di legittimazione dei repertori linguistici plurali, sono in costante aumento, sia in Nord America sia in Europa. Il presente contributo ha l’obiettivo di presentare alcune buone pratiche di didattica plurilingue basate sul paradigma del translanguaging e sperimentate nell’ambito del progetto “L’AltRoparlante”, portato avanti in cinque scuole italiane a partire dal 2016. Le attività iniziate dal 2016 non si sono mai interrotte e hanno permesso di costruire una progettazione a medio-lungo termine. Innanzitutto verrà fornito uno sguardo di insieme sulla didattica plurilingue in Italia, in modo particolare nella sua dimensione complementare rispetto alla didattica interculturale, e contestualizzato il paradigma del translanguaging come pratica didattica nel sistema scolastico italiano. In seguito ci focalizzeremo su due casi di studio relativi a pratiche translinguistiche in attività condotte nell’ambito del progetto “L’AltRoparlante” in due scuole primarie durante l’orario curriculare, anche con il coinvolgimento dei genitori degli alunni coinvolti. Attraverso l’analisi dei due casi di studio sarà possibile mettere in evidenza quanto la legittimazione simbolica e didattica dei repertori plurilingui possa incoraggiare la consapevolezza dei diritti linguistici da un lato, e la moltiplicazione di pratiche discorsive translinguistiche dall’altro.   The other speaker. Research, experimentation and multilingual didactics in primary and secondary school: the involvement of families between the intercultural approach and translanguaging The concept of translanguaging as a teaching practice has been at the center of the international educational debate in the fields of sociolinguistics and educational linguistics for some years now.  Experimentation in a school context, within a framework of valorization of plurilingualism and legitimization of plural language repertoires, is constantly increasing, both in North America and in Europe. This paper aims to present some good practices for multilingual didactics based on the translanguaging paradigm and experienced in the project “L'AltRoparlante”, carried out in five Italian schools starting from 2016. The activities, which started in 2016, are ongoing and part of a medium-long term project. First of all, an overview of multilingual didactics in Italy will be provided, particularly in comparison to intercultural didactics. The paradigm of translanguaging as a teaching practice in the Italian school system will be contextualized. Afterwards, we will focus on two case studies related to translinguistic practices in activities carried out within the project “L’AltRoparlante” in two primary schools during the curricular hours, with the involvement of the parents of the pupils involved. Thanks to the analysis of the two case studies, it will be possible to highlight how the symbolic and didactic legitimation of multilingual repertoires can encourage the awareness of linguistic rights on the one hand and the multiplication of translinguistic discursive practices on the other