Meeting Teaching Italian as a Second Language, Plurilingualism, Interculturality

Program

Speakers

• Mari D’Agostino

  Full Professor of Italian Linguistics at the University of Palermo. In recent years, she has coordinated the PhD programme in ‘Migration, Rights and Social Justice’. Among her most recent works, published by Il Mulino, are *Languages and Society in Contemporary Italy* (with Giuseppe Paternostro, 2025) and *We Who Have Passed Through Libya: Young People on a Journey Through Alphabets and Multilingualism* (2021).
  Both within and outside educational institutions, there are countless places where Italian is taught today to young people, adults and migrant children. Not always, but often, in these spaces, bonds are forged, perspectives are shared, and we learn more than we teach. Drawing on my nearly twenty years’ experience as coordinator of the School of Italian for Foreigners (ItaStra) at the University of Palermo, we will discuss ‘changes’: in patterns of migration, in teaching and research practices, in linguistic models, and, last but not least, in the relationships between people who listen to one another in an Italian language course.

• Peter Auer

  Professor emeritus at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg (Germany), where until recently he held the chair of Germanic Linguistics. His research areas include bilingualism, dialectology, phonology, syntax of spoken language, conversation analysis, gaze analysis, and sociolinguistics. He has published more than 250 scholarly articles in journals and edited volumes and is the (co-)editor/(co-)author of 29 books.
  In this talk, I want to demonstrate that bilingualism is not something in people’s head, but that is true home is in interaction, in the way we use language to do things and to present ourselves and our identities to others. When using one or more languages (or dialects), we can add meaning to what we are saying, we can put our words in context and steer their interpretation in one way or the other. But in addition, we can affiliate with or disaffiliate from others, we can demonstrate who we are, we can position ourselves in a social field. I will introduce you to some fundamental patterns of bilingual talk (code-switching, mixing) and suggest some ways in which these patterns become pragmatically and socially meaningful.

• Michael Byram

  Michael Byram studied languages at King’s College Cambridge, wrote a PhD in Danish literature, and then taught French and German in secondary and adult education. He was at Durham University from 1980, where he trained language teachers and researched foreign language education. He is now Guest Professor, Sofia University, Bulgaria.
  The title of talk reflects the significance of the promotion of dialogue in the contemporary world, within and across the frontiers of countries in Europe and beyond, as the Council of Europe has often stated. Successful dialogue depends however on people having ‘intercultural (communicative) competence’ (ICC). I will describe what ICC is, and the preconditions for success. I shall consider in particular the role of language teachers in promoting intercultural competences and dialogue, and how the new course will address these issues.