The aim of the Regional Dossier series is to provide concise descriptions of regional or minority languages in education, mainly in Europe but also in other parts of the world. Friulian is a Romance language, traditionally recognised as part of the Rhaeto-Romance sub-family. It is spoken in Friûl (in Friulian)/Friuli (in Italian), a territory…

Due to globalisation and migration, multilingualism has become both a reality and an aim of education systems across Europe, affecting how language education is shaped. To improve the ways in which schools cater for language education in diverse settings, research is required on the potentials of multilingualism in order to design curricula that…

According to a language-integrated view of spelling development, learning to spell involves the same language-learning skills across alphabetic systems. A prediction based on this view is that the same spelling training should be equally effective for learning to spell in a shallow (Italian, native language) or an opaque (English, additional…

Australian research on immigrant languages has paid little attention to interactional approaches to language alternation as identity construction, and sites other than the family and the mainstream school. We argue for the need of studies that take into account a wider range of sites, in particular "community" sites, and adopt…

This paper investigates the role of supplementary schools as grassroots educational initiatives whose reach extend beyond individual educational trajectories for minoritized youth. We examine how these schools serve as community forces, emphasizing the importance of resources and relationships. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of funds of…

This regional dossier aims to provide a concise description of the European minority language, Italian in Switzerland, in education. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main actors, legal arrangements and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects such as the number of schools,…

From 1890-1914, Argentina received a large influx of Italian immigrants who wanted to "hacer la América," or live the American dream of economic prosperity. With Italian immigrants representing nearly half of all immigrants entering Argentina, the government strived to create a new sense of Argentine pride and nationalism. The objective…

In this article I describe the work of Leonard Covello, a New York City language educator and high school principal of the early 20th century who argued for Italian and Spanish heritage language (HL) preservation in schools. Although Covello promoted standard language Italian and Spanish in the HL classroom, he also encouraged HL students to use…

Two principles necessary for integrating the native language and second language approaches to language instruction are discussed: (1) that such an integration must be viewed as a meeting, not of subject areas but of professional competencies and (2) that languages must be considered not as separate systems but as a continuum. (MSE)

Discusses the results of research to determine the success of the efforts currently being made in schools to teach pure Italian to the second generation of Italians in Australia in order to replace Italian Australian, a mixture of Italian dialects, Italian, and English. 33 references. (CFM)

The following papers on interdisciplinary cooperation in second language instruction are included: (1) "Language Teaching: Possibilities for Interdisciplinary Co-operation," by James E. Alatis; (2) "L'insegnamento della letteratura italiana (The Teaching of Italian Literature)," by Ezio Raimondi; (3) "Objective Evaluation and Transparency," by…

This issue contains proceedings of a colloquium on linguistics at the University of Neuchatel: (1) "Propositions epistemologiques pour une etude du bilinguisme (Epistemological Propositions for a Study of Bilingualism)," by B. Py; (2) "Comment on di ca? Prolegomenes a une etude de la composante semantique du langage des migrants (How Do You Say…

A reader on Italians in Rhode Island, which provides ethnic material for Italian language courses at level three of high school or at third semester of college, is presented. Contents are as follows: a history of the Italians in Rhode Island; a profile of the lives of some of the prominent members of the Italian community; and an anthology of…

Compares Italian native language instruction and instruction in English and French as a second language and discusses how the similarities may be used to improve the effectiveness of language teaching. (MSE)

Project IMPACT, a magnet program in its third and final year of funding, provided instruction in ESL and Italian language skills, as well as bilingual instruction in mathematics, social studies and typing to approximately 200 students of limited English proficiency in a Brooklyn, New York, high school. Nearly all program students were born in…