Abstract Summary
I will present the results of a long-term study on concepts for managing multilingualism at schools in South Tyrol. Study data include interviews with educational actors, school principals and teachers in 12 schools, allowing for the development of a grounded theory for evaluating policy and practice.
Abstract :
Today, multilingualism in South Tyrol neither only refers to the presence of the three historical and officially recognized languages of German, Italian and Ladin, nor is it limited to formally taught languages such as English, French, Spanish or Russian. It also comprises an increasing awareness of dialects and heritage languages of students whose families have rather recently come to this part of Northern Italy – a European border region characterised by a long history of (not only language-related) challenges and a very diverse social and linguistic fabric. In contrast to this increasing diversity, the educational sector of South Tyrol features three different and rather closed systems with very separate structures, all with their own models for teaching languages and managing multilingualism.
So far, previous studies on multilingualism at South Tyrolean schools have focused on language education in only one or two educational systems of the three endogenous linguistic groups: Italian, German or Ladin, and were mostly based on traditional theories of bilingualism that do not take into account the recent linguistic diversity. This qualitative study aims to provide a timelier, more accurate framework for describing and systematising multilingual didactics in South Tyrolean schools to manage and integrate effectively the challenges of all forms of multilingualism in the educational spheres of all three linguistic groups.
My data comprises 35 in-depth interviews with key educational actors and representatives of 12 schools throughout South Tyrol, which allows for a qualitative assessment of the current state of affairs and the elaboration of a Grounded Theory on managing multilingualism – and also increasing linguistic diversity. This may prove useful not only for sustaining collaboration among educational actors in South Tyrol but may also serve as a source for developing empirically-based and integrated didactics of multilingualism.
