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

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Language Contact, Immigrant Languages, School System, Linguistic-Cultural Identity

JEL Classification: I, I2, I21