Università per Stranieri di Perugia
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Inclusiv-ITA: Teaching Italian for Inclusion, Between Multilingualism and Cognitive Diversity

The research group "Inclusiv-ITA" aims to explore teaching methodologies for inclusive

Italian language education, with a particular focus on multilingualism and the cognitive diversity of students.

Cummins (2024) notes that language teaching is experiencing a “cross-linguistic/trans

languaging phase” and highlights how language and modality contact can offer productive opportunities both linguistically and cognitively.

The Companion Volume to the Common European Framework of

Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2020) further develops the concept of plurilingual and intercultural competence, aligning with other European documents such as FREPA/CARAP, Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (Candelier, 2012).

Plurilingual and interc

ultural competence entails, on the one hand, the ability to engage with otherness in order to foster the idea of democratic global citizenship, and, on the other, the capacity to maximise one's linguistic resources by working within an interconnected repertoire, combining language skills with general competences and diverse cognitive strategies. Additionally, the new mediation descriptors in the Companion Volume make it possible to highlight not only the plural dimension in the interdependence between individuals and communities, but also the process of meaning-making in interaction, through more complex cognitive competences (Piccardo, 2022).

The group’s research areas therefore concern plurilingual teaching

, multimodal communication (Kress, 2010) understood as a plurality of semiotic expression, and cognitive diversity, with particular attention to neurodivergence. The main research context consists of Italian language and culture courses at the Università per Stranieri and the various opportunities for linguistic and intercultural exchange within the University’s educational community, as well as in the urban context of Perugia.

 

The objectives of the Inclusiv-ITA research group are:

  • to implement teaching strategies
aimed at developing linguistic competence in Italian, leveraging multimodal communication and evaluating its impact in terms of learning outcomes
  • to design educational pathways focused on the development
    • of plurilingual and intercultural competence, valuing students’ linguistic backgrounds—particularly from a metalinguistic perspective—and promoting encounters with diversity, while assessing the learning outcomes
  • to identify teaching strategies to support cognitive diversity by applying methodologies
    • such as Universal Design for Learning, and to support students with special educational needs and neurodivergent students, verifying the results in terms of motivation and inclusion
  • to broaden the
    • applicability of research results by designing teaching materials and peer learning pathways, with a view to sharing good practices and having an immediate impact on Italian language and culture courses.

    Roberto Dolci, Associate Professor GLOT-

    01/B
    Borbala Samu, Associate Professor GLOT-01/B
    Letizia Cinganotto, Fixed-term Researcher (RtdB) GLOT-01/B
    Valentina Carbonara, Fixed-term Researcher (RtdB) GLOT-01/B
    page">Marco Filardi, Fixed-term Researcher (RtdB) PSIC-01/A
    ="go to personal page">Cristina Gaggioli, Fixed-term Researcher (RtdB) PAED-02/A
    Chiara Bambagioni, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Maria Chiara Lisi, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Roberta Scarpocchi, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Francesca Leonardi, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Catia Mugnani, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Andrea Civile, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Fulvio Bifarini, Language Instructor (native Italian speaker)
    Caterina Calicchio, PhD Candidate (Linguistics and Language Teaching), 38th cycle