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ITALY
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADULTS TO LEARN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION
STRUCTURES
Margrit
Wetter |
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ITALY
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADULTS TO LEARN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES IN ITALIAN HIGHER
EDUCATION
STRUCTURES
Margrit Wetter (Università degli studi "G
d'Annunzio" Chieti, Italy)
0. Premise
This report is a general outline of the current
situation as regards adults L2 learning and teaching
in Italy. Emphasis is placed on language learning/teaching
in higher education, which is, however, with some
exceptions, not the ideal place for adults who
want to learn languages without following a whole
degree course. This presentation also refers to
some important cultural institutions that are in
a particular situation for their special recognition
status. Due to the complexity of the topic, it
is not possible to take into consideration all
the opportunities for the acquisition of a foreign
language in Italy nor all the structures, which
provide language teaching, therefore the chosen
examples are somewhat arbitrary.
1. Adults' L2 knowledge: some statistics
In 1988 69% of all Italians over the age of 6 stated
that they didn't know any language other than their
mother tongue (ISTAT 1988); this percentage had
decreased within 7 years to 54% (ISTAT Censis 1995).
In recent years language teaching has been intensively
promoted at all education levels, by the Ministry
of Education.
Language teaching is nowadays a consistent element
of education. That means that more and more young
people learn one or two languages other than
their L1 Italian, but older generations who
were at school
in an era in which the study of foreign languages
was neglected show a lower percentage of L2 knowledge,
and this percentage steadily decreases with age
(data 1995):
|
| SEX |
6-10 |
11-14 |
15-17 |
18-19 |
20-24 |
25-34 |
35-44 |
45-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-74 |
75+ |
total |
| male |
22,0 |
68,8 |
78,2 |
73,6 |
68,8 |
56,8 |
52,2 |
39,2 |
31,6 |
22,7 |
21,3 |
15,0 |
45,3 |
| female |
21,2 |
73,4 |
84,4 |
80,1 |
75,9 |
61,0 |
51,3 |
32,4 |
19,8 |
14,9 |
12,4 |
8,8 |
41,3 |
male&
female |
21,6 |
71,1 |
81,2 |
76,8 |
72,3 |
58,9 |
51,7 |
35,7 |
25,6 |
18,7 |
16,4 |
11,1 |
43,2 |
A report published by Censis (Centro Studi Investimenti
Sociali) on the bases of Eurobarometer shows that
in Italy English is the foreign language most often
studied (42%). Other languages are French (38%),
German (7%) and Spanish (4%). Additionally a small
percentage of the target group (2%) states that
other unspecified languages are studied.
(Censis 19941)
However, studying a foreign language
does not necessarily lead to knowledge and competence
in that language: only 29% stated that they could
participate in a conversation in English, 23% in
French, 3% in German, 2% in Spanish and 1% in another
language (Censis 1994).
Other interesting data show that, when asked about
the utility of languages other than their L1, Italians
indicated English as the most useful language (85,3%),
followed by French (37,1%), German (29,2%) and
Spanish (10,1%). This information shows that there
is a gap between recognition of the importance
of having knowledge of another language and the
capacity to use that language.
From the data we can deduce two important things:
2. while young people, thanks to a better language
policy, have the opportunity to learn two languages
during their time at school, many older people
do not have knowledge of another European language;
3. most people realize the importance and usefulness
of knowing another European language, but in reality
the proportion of Italian people who are really
able to communicate in another European language
is smaller than these responses would suggest.
1 http://www.censis.it/censis/ra/1997/sintes02_tab.html.
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