Com.It.Es South Australia is pleased to announce the completion of our main project for 2019/20 with regards to our Language Report led by Associate Professor Angela Scarino Chair of the Com.It.Es South Australia Education and Research sub-committee. This small-scale pilot study ‘Being and becoming an Italian: the perspective of young people’ analyses the perceptions of young people aged 9-18 on the Italian language and culture in South Australia.

The present pilot study is situated at the intersection of at least three fields of study: migration studies, youth studies and applied/sociolinguistic studies, with its focus on language/s, culture/s and identities. The major interest of the pilot study is on both the processes of identification (how it is that young people identify as Italians and/or Australians) and identity formation (how it is that young people come to develop their identities). To our knowledge, there are no studies that have brought together these three informing fields.

Under the auspices of Com.It.Es. South Australia, and with the collaboration of the Italian Consulate in Adelaide, the Dante Alighieri Society, and the South Australia Association of Teachers of Italian (SAATI) this small scale project was undertaken to investigate young people’s perceptions on the Italian language and culture. This report presents the findings of this pilot project. It is intended that it will be disseminated to the Italian community, to teachers of Italian, and other interested parties.

Com.It.Es South Australia President Dr Christian Verdicchio stated that “The Com.It.Es committee sees Language and Culture as an important area and commissioning this report and the results we hope will play an important part in further improving and enhancing the teaching of Italian Language and Culture in South Australia and even Australia. Com.It.Es South Australia wishes to thank Associate Professor Angela Scarino, Dr Matteo Farina and Dr Enza Tudini for their amazing work in completing this report for us, and we wish to acknowledge the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for funding this project in conjunction with the support of the Consulate of Italy in Adelaide”.

Please click here to download the language report. COMITES Language Project – Report only