This paper deals with the problems of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and as a lingua franca (ELF) in the Italian educational system and, in particular, with introducing language variation in the English class. After briefly illustrating how English teaching has changed in the last few decades, an outline is drawn of what happens in the Italian school system today from child care to university as far as English teaching is concerned. The second part of the contribution focuses on the increasing variability of English as a world language, both within and outside the native speakers' domain. The second part also deals with the issues that the complex nature of variation in English has raised when teaching it, and underlines how such issues have recently, although only partially, been acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of Education. The final section, illustrates a proposal for implementing the teaching of English variation in Italian schools, based on the concepts of utility and usability which have given birth to a student-tailored approach called Bespoke Language Teaching. Keywords

The most recent data available from the Ministry of University and Research (2017) confirm that in Italy, students of foreign origin who have reached the age of secondary school still prefer to enrol in technical and professional institutes rather than in high schools. The same data also reveal how their school performance tends to be on average lower than that of their peers not of foreign origin, especially in scientific or technical subjects. Very often, the causes of this are to be found in a not yet adequate level of CALP. In this paper we illustrate a project (Po.Li.S.: Potenziamento Lingua dello Studio), the purpose of which was to improve the CALP of these students and in so doing their overall school results and motivation to study.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Association of Teachers ofItalian is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Italica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 23:41:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions REVIEWS 551 REVIEWS 551limited communicative function in specific social contexts, while English is the language of choice for interaction with Italians of different regional origin. Although Italian is not considered a core value for Italian Americans living in San Francisco, and despite a shift that seems irreversible, a strong sociolinguistic consciousness is noted among speakers, typified in the absence of a mixed code and negative attitudes toward heavy mixture. Many results coincide with those found among Italian Americans of Southern origin living in the New York area. As the author correctly notes, language shift is conditioned by the limited functions of the immigrant language and the restricted domains in which it is used, even among Tuscan immigrant groups, with the closeness between dialect and standard varieties. It is also conditioned by language attitudes, and it would be interesting to ponder the role in attrition of attitudes toward other Italian immigrant groups that moved to California, such as the Sicilians. It is also difficult to assess the role of the Italian language in Italian American identity, since self-evaluations obtained from questionnaires may contain prestige answers, and since the heritage language (including the heavily mixed variety) is restricted more to the private domain. Heavy mixtures and Italian American words, for example, that seem to be absent in the speech of Lucchesi, were found to be still used or known among first-and second-generation Italian Americans on the East Coast, despite their low status.Scaglione's book is well written and very readable, suggesting a host of reflections. The transcriptions of some of the interviews (99-107) also lead to many considerations about the Italian American experience on the West Coast. The complex and challenging question of language vs. identity is one that invites further studies among speakers of Italian abroad. Scaglione is to be commended for her very refined and solid sociolinguistic analysis that provides valuable new results and an incentive for similar studies among other Italian American populations.

inaustralia/?hilite=%22rubino%22 È ben noto come tra i paesi tradizionalmente più attraenti per l'emigrazione italiana un posto di spicco lo occupi da sempre l'Australia. Gli albori di questo fenomeno risalgono, come altrove, in maniera massiccia, alla seconda metà del 1800. Da principio si trattava principalmente di missionari e artisti provenienti dalle regioni settentrionali che si stabilirono soprattutto negli stati del New South Wales e di Victoria. Ben presto, si aggiunsero a questi, immigrati da altre regioni (quelle del sud) in cerca di condizioni di vita e lavorative migliori rispetto a quelle dell'Italia appena unificata: perlopiù trovarono impiego come contadini, manovali, minatori e taglialegna. Il censimento del 1911 riporta che gli italiani in Australia si aggiravano intorno ai 7000. Nel periodo tra la fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale e il 2000 l'immigrazione italiana ha avuto un ulteriore slancio portandola a costituire il terzo gruppo etnico dopo britannici e irlandesi e il primo non anglofono madrelingua. Oggi la comunità di origine italiana è composta da circa un milione di persone a cui si aggiungono 200.000 italiani residenti permanenti e 15.000 non permanenti.Da questo breve e inevitabilmente limitato excursus storico-demografico si evince che il ruolo della lingua e della cultura italiane in Australia nell'ultimo secolo e mezzo è stato ed ancora è tutt'altro che marginale. Per quanto nel tempo molti siano stati gli studi dedicati al tema, mancava, tuttavia, un lavoro aggiornato e unitario che si occupasse dell'insegnamento della nostra lingua nel paese. È per questo che il volume che presentiamo qui rappresenta un prezioso e imprescindibile strumento di conoscenza e riflessione sullo stato dell'arte che unisce tre prospettive: quella storica, quella presente e quella dei possibili ed auspicabili sviluppi futuri.Per raggiungere quest'importante risultato i curatori, Antonia Rubino (