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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 741

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Italian as a foreign language: a matter of varieties of standard Italian

Authors: Tabaku Sörman, Entela
Submitted by: Tabaku Sörman, Entela (Stockholm University, Sweden)

In this paper I would like to report on the first results of my on-going doctoral research that deals with the problem of the different varieties of Italian standard in a foreign language learning (FLL) context. Through an analysis of the language used in recent Italian language textbooks published in Sweden, I try to identify the variety of Italian available as input to the learners of Italian in Sweden. Most Italians use varieties along a continuum from standard Italian to dialect according to what is appropriate, but it is known that in foreign-language settings the preference model is nearly always a variety of standard language (Ellis 2008). This is also the case of Italian in FLL context and generally in all school-contexts. The traditional standard Italian has been the school-Italian by definition and is still associated with the normative model by a lot of Italians (D’Achille 2003). However, the choice of standard Italian is no longer obvious since the Italian linguistic panorama has changed dramatically due a series of important changes in Italian society. Along with the rigid norms of traditional standard Italian and the more casual forms of substandard Italian, the majority of linguists seem to agree today that a new intermediate variety of standard has emerged. The new variety, known as “italiano d’uso medio” (Sabatini 1985) or “neostandard” (Berruto 1987), appears as more appropriate now that Italian is used not only as a written language, which was the case until 50 years ago, but also as a spoken one taking the place of the local varieties. I look for typical traits of this “new” Italian standard in recent Italian language textbooks published in Sweden and my findings, as in the use of subjunctive and third person personal pronouns, suggest that the traditional standard is no longer the school-variety of Italian by definition.

References

Berruto, Gaetano. 1987. Sociolinguistica dell’italiano contemporaneo. Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica.

D’Achille, Paolo. 2003. “Aspetti evolutivi dell’italiano contemporaneo”. In Marcato, Gianna (eds). Italiano. Strana lingua? Padova: Unipress, 23-37.

Ellis, Rod. 2008. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Renzi, Lorenzo. 2003. ”Il cambiamento linguistico nell’italiano contemporaneo”. In Maraschio, Nicoletta & Poggi Salani, Teresa (eds). 2003. Italia linguistica anno mille. Italia linguistica anno duemila. Roma: Bulzoni, 37-53.

Sabatini, Francesco. 1985. “L’“italiano dell’uso medio”: una realtà tra le varietà linguistiche italiane”. In Holtus, Günter & Radtke, Edgar (eds). Gesprochenes Italienisch in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Tübingen: Narr, 154-185.