Is Italian in danger?

The University Department of Arts and Languages within the Faculty of Education, in collaboration with the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, will be organising a seminar on the Italian language in Malta.

During the seminar entitled ‘L’italiano a Malta: una lingua in pericolo?’ (Italian in Malta: a language in danger?), teachers and lecturers of Italian, as well as administrators and stakeholders, will discuss howa number of changes at a social level in Malta have affected Italian.

Among topics discussed will be the outcome of recent research which is showing that Italian media are not as popular in Malta now as in the past, especially among the younger generation; this represents a new challenge for teachers of Italian at all levels.

This seminar, intended as a first step towards creating further initiatives, represents an opportunity to discuss the present situation of Italian, also in the light of the language policy of the EU, which strongly favours multilingualism.

The seminar will be held at the Dolmen Hotel, Qawra, on December 4 from 8.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more information, e-mail Prof. Sandro Caruana at sandro.caruana@um.edu.mt or Mario Pace at mario.pace@um.edu.mt.