Ethnic Issues – Coordination and Evaluation of Project Activities (Italian National Community) 2021

The Importance of Schools with Italian as the Language of Instruction on the Coast for Preserving the Vitality of the Italian National Community

In this year’s professional development project, we involved 9th-grade students from Koper Elementary School with the aim of examining their views on the Italian language, which is taught as a second language (L2) in Slovenian schools within the ethnically mixed environment of Slovenian Istria. In the ethnically mixed region of Slovenian Istria, the Italian language has equal status with the Slovenian languages, and Italian is a required subject starting in the 1st grade.

The study reveals that students do not use Italian outside the home (for example, in stores, at the doctor’s office, in sports clubs, etc.), but communicate exclusively in Slovenian. The fact that students do not use Italian except during Italian language classes at school is also confirmed by the fact that most of those surveyed never read books or magazines in Italian. Likewise, most students do not listen to music, watch TV, or use the Internet or social media in Italian.

Regarding language proficiency, students rated their knowledge of the Slovenian language very highly, while their knowledge of the Italian language was rated as average—neither good nor bad. However, we note that the final grades achieved by students in Slovenian and Italian classes do not reflect their opinions or their actual proficiency.