Multilingualism and language learning: The Rome city report

ThisarticleillustratesthefindingsonmultilingualismrelatedtotheeducationalsphereinthecityofRome,withinthescopeandtheoreticalframeworkoftheinternationalprojectLUCIDE(LanguagesinUrbanCommunities–IntegrationandDiversityforEurope).Particularly,itdescribesthetypeoflinguisticandculturalsupportofferedtoplurilingualcitizensandthelanguageteachingpracticesthathaveemergedfromthestudyoftheUniversityofRome‘ForoItalico’Unit,aspresentedintheRomecityreport(Evangelisti, et al. ,2014;Menghini,2015). Thesymbolicandpragmaticusesoflanguages,theirstatus,andtheirvisibilityineducational practicesareparticularlyhighlighted,aspartofthechallengesrelatedtothecityauthorities’approachtomultilingualism,particularlyfortheeducationalfield.Theroleofpublicandprivateinstitutions,andtheirinteractioninlanguagelearningpracticesandintheeducationalsupportforplurilingualsandforeignersinRomeareinvestigatedandconsideredinlightofthenationallanguageandeducationpoliciesandguidelines.Thearticle’sconclusionsindicatesomepossiblestepsforimprovementineducationalpracticesatcitylevel,tobettersupportplurilingualcitizensandtoeffectivelyfacethechallengesofmultilingualism.

Within the project, the terms'multilingualism' and'plurilingualism' refer to societal and individual multilingualism, respectively, according to the distinction drawn in the work of the CouncilofEurope (BeaccoandByram,2005;BeaccoandByram,2007).Societalmultilingualism is the co-existence of many languages, in this case within a city. Plurilingualism indicates an individual's repertoire of languages. Moreover, for the purposes of this article, the term 'intercultural' is employed in reference to the dynamic encounter and interaction of people fromdifferentcultures,andtoindicatetheplaces,activities,services,andsoon,inwhichsuch interactionoccurs (Trevisani,2005;HuberandReynolds,2014).
Focusingonthecityreportdatarelatedtoeducation,thisarticlepresentsItaliannational laws and policies on languages, along with general observations on the approach to linguistic diversity in the national educational system, as an introduction to the authoritative, official positiononlanguageuseandlanguagelearningforItalyand,consequently,Rome.
As a further attempt to widen the scope and strengthen the effectiveness of language teaching and learning through a plurilingual approach, according to the 2010 national law reformofsecondaryschoolsatsecondgrade(particularlyPresidentialDecreesno.87,88,89), coursesadoptingtheContentandLanguageIntegratedLearningmethodologywereobligatorily introduced in a number of classes in all types of high schools in the country. However, such coursesareofferedmostlyinEnglishor,lessfrequently,inFrench. Therefore, a gap seems to exist between official documents and regulations supporting linguistic diversity and plurilingualism in education, and the actual practices -which mainly focus on Italian for foreigners and on a few widespread, prestigious European languages, and whichtendtoneglectlesswidespreadoriginlanguages.Thereseemstobeatensioninnational authorities between the need to teach Italian to non-EU foreigners, and the parallel need to preservetheiroriginlanguagesandprovideforservicesinsuchlanguages.Thetensionisboth at symbolic and practical levels. In line with the country policy of the national language, the authoritiesestablishedItalianasthenecessarylanguagetoofficiallyenterItaliansocietyandthe workmarket,thusattributinghugesymbolicvaluetoit,besidesrecognizingitspragmaticuse.As inotherEUcountriesandLUCIDEcities(seeSkrandies,2016),proficiencyintheofficiallanguage inItalyis(simplisticallyandnationalistically)equatedwiththefirststeptowardsintegrationand therightandabilitytoliveandworkinItalyfornon-EUforeigners.Conversely,incompliance withEUmobilitylaws,noobligatorycoursesandtestsarerequiredforEUcitizens.Atthesame time, following EU guidelines and according to recent official documents, the authorities also favoursupportforplurilingualsandlinguisticdiversityinschools,grantingsomerecognitionand, thus,symbolicvaluetooriginlanguages,andencouragingapositivelinguisticidentity.However, on a pragmatic level, the public education system assigns few resources to, and enacts very limitedprovisionsfor,lessprestigiousoriginlanguages.InRome,otherpublicandprivateentities takeonthechallengeofcateringfortheneedsofsuchneglectedlanguagespeakers,asshownin thefollowingtwosections.
As part of the national framework agreement, free courses in the Italian language and cultureformigrantsandrefugeesareorganizedintheLazioregionandinRome,boththrough thepublic(i.e.state)educationsystemandthroughprivateschoolsandvoluntaryassociations. The public educationsystem is primarily in charge of preparing and administering the exams andissuing certificatesfortheworkandresidencepermits. PermanentLocal Centres(Centri Territoriali Permanenti;12inRome,37intheLazioregion)weresetuptohostandofferfree Italianlanguagecoursesinpreparationoftheseexams.However,suchcentresandcoursesare hardlyenoughtomeetthemigrants'requests.Thus,voluntaryandprivateassociationsarealso usually involved, in cooperation with Rome City Council and the Lazio region (see the next sectionforfurtherdetails).
AshighlightedbySanna (2013),theimportant differencebetweenthecoursesorganized bylibrariesandthosebythePermanentLocalCentres,publicschools,andprivateassociations, is that libraries are unaligned, open, and neutral places from a religious, educational, political, andsocialpointofview,whereeveryonecanenter,familiescanbringtheirchildren,andwhere they can take part in all the library activities together with other library users.The end-ofcourse parties organized at the libraries, featuring typical food, dances, and music, have been particularly successful in bringing together the students, their families, local language experts, and the interested and curious members of the local (both Italian and foreign) communities. Suchgoodinterculturalandmultilingualpracticeshavealsoledtoa10to30percentincrease innewregisteredlibraryuserswhoareforeigninrecentyears(i.e.2010to2012),compared withthetotalofnewregisteredusers,accordingto2012dataofthelibrariesnetwork(ibid.). All the libraries' activities and events are regularly promoted by and illustrated in the Roma Multietnica website (www.romamultietnica.it) and newsletter, run by the Intercultural Office.
The examples in this section seem to show that, in Rome, private institutes, voluntary associations, and social cooperatives strive to compensate for the shortcomings of public institutions in linguistic services and courses -which are inadequate both in number and in variety.Theroleoftheprivatesectorineducationalprogrammesseemsparticularlycrucialfor thesupportofless'prestigiouslanguages'.Infact,theworkofprivateorganizationspositively contributestothestatusandvisibilityoforiginlanguagesintheurbanspacesmoreconsistently thanthatofthepublicsector.However,mostoftheactivitiesandprojectsundertakenbyprivate associationsareofnarrowscope,limitedtospecificareasofthecityandtospecificspheres of interest. Inevitably, they often depend on short-term funding and on the time, work, and resources of volunteers.A more general approach to facing the challenges of multilingualism could be more effective to cater for citizens' needs and to take advantage of the linguistic richnessofamulticulturalcity,asfurtherdiscussedinthenextsection.
Thegatheredresponsesonthecity'sapproachtomultilingualismseeminlinewithother evidence of our research: they mostly agree that more support from the city authorities is necessarytoproperlysupportlinguisticdiversityandtocaterfortheneedsofthemulticultural population of the city.A coordinated approach and a general city policy on languages and multilingualism are deemed possible important steps to take for the city's public authorities, as explicitly suggested by two interviewees. Such steps would contribute to promoting the goodpracticesandthemanylanguageteachingactivities,currentlycarriedoutbytheprivate and voluntary associations, as mentioned in the responses and as illustrated in the previous section.Oneintervieweesuggestedthatastructural,citywideapproachshouldsubstitutethe numberless, always renewing projects, to satisfy the needs connected to multilingualism.An insufficientinteractionbetweenthecityauthoritiesandtheassociationsworkingwithmigrants wasexplicitlypointedout,byanotherinterviewee,asanobstacletobestpractices.Thus,these stakeholders' opinions seem to confirm our findings that services and provisions enacted by stateandlocalauthoritiesarebarelyadequatefortheplurilingualcommunitiesinthecity.To beeffective,public supportforprojectsoflocalorganizationsonmultilingualism needsmore consistencyandalong-termvision.Theimpressionofnumberlessdisjointedactivitiescarried outwithlimited(ifany)publicfundsinspecificareasofthecity,orforspecificgroupsofcitizens, isalsoconfirmedintheserespondents'experiences.Indeed,onasimilarnote,acoordinated, inclusiveapproach,withgeneralprovisionsaimedatallchildreninneedoflanguagesupportregardlessoftheirorigins-couldalsofavourtheschoolprogressoftheRomanychildren,as gatheredfromArrighiet al. 'sreport(2011).
Particularly,themanyprovisionsintheeducationalspheresetupbyRomeCityCouncil andbyotherauthoritiesforplurilingualsandforeigners,reflectingthenationalframeworksand legislation,focusmainlyoncoursesofItalianasaforeignlanguageandonschoolcoursesinthe mostcommonEuropeanlanguages,especiallyEnglish.Onlytoalesserextentdotheyprovidefor coursesandsupportforthemigrants'originlanguages,despitethestatementsinnationalofficial documents.Amongthefewgoodpracticesinthepublicsector,thecitylibrarynetworkemerges as most active on a wide variety of language courses, multilingual support, and multicultural integration.The libraries network partly also takes on the role of coordinating structure for many plurilingual educational activities in the city, with an unaligned, non-political, and nonreligiousstance.Itconsistentlyoffersfreeopenspacesforsuchactivitiestotakeplace,aswell as giving them visibility and publicity through its website and newsletter. In cooperation with librariesandotherstateinstitutions,alargenumberofprivateandvolunteerassociationsfocus onassistancetomigrantsandtoplurilingualsingeneral,throughavarietyoflanguage-related educationalprojectsandactivities.Atleastinpart,librariesandsuchprivateorganizationsseem tocontributetoapositivelinguisticidentityforforeigncitizens,andtobalanceoutthestatus andvisibilityofneglectedoriginlanguages.