WP8
IN SEARCH FOR MULTICOMPETENCE:

Exploring language use and language values among multilingual immigrant students

Bolzano Research Unit:
GESSICA DE ANGELIS, SILVIA DAL NEGRO, ENRICA CORTINOVIS, CRISTINA QUARANTI

WP8 is part of the larger EU project LINEE. In particular, this research unit is formed by researchers of the FUB and researchers from Southampton (UK) and from Vienna (A) and develops integrate and comparative research and analysis tools.
The overall objective is to explore multi-competence among teenage multilingual immigrant students in Italy, England and Austria, who are competent in a number of linguistic varieties. The research focuses on three main areas:

1. language use;
2. language attitudes towards languages and multilingualism;
3. language education policy.
 
The main approach is ethnographic work conducted among teenage students in secondary schools and focuses on building "life histories" through detailed ethnographic interviews and participant observation of a number of students in order to explore their language environment and social network.
Our research tools are individual interviews to students, teachers and headmasters, focus groups with students, classroom observations and a questionnaire distributed to migrant and non migrant secondary students. Our field of research is two-fold: on one side vocational schools in Bolzano, on the other side interviews with teachers of different regions in Italy to gain a national perspective.

The research questions that lead our investigation and our analysis are:

a) how can we define a multilingual school?

b) what is the relationship between multicompetent students and language awareness?

c) to what extent do participants (students, teachers, headmasters...) believe that multicompetence may enhance further language learning?

d) which language attitudes are shared within the school community?

e) what is the relationship between education language policies and students’ multilingual repertoires?