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Italian(s) in the World

Module description

Italy is well known for its history of emigration – with millions leaving its borders to find new beginnings elsewhere in Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific. They took with them the Italian language and established themselves in neighbourhoods called Little Italies. Italian mass migration ended in the 1980s, but a new wave of Italian migrants was triggered by the 2008-economic crisis. At the same time, the Italian language is widely studied and used as a second language in some countries even without a presence of Italian migrants, but because of prestige or historical links.    

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to increase your knowledge and understanding of Italian emigration (old and new), language maintenance in Italian communities, the presence of the Italian language and culture abroad. It will introduce you to a range of case studies (UK, the Americas, European countries and the Horn of Africa) and sociolinguistic means of analysis and concepts to analyse them. This module also aims to develop your understanding of the socio-historical factors linked to the presence of Italian communities and the Italian language around the world.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding of how social and historical facts have shaped the presence of Italian communities abroad
• 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the presence of the Italian language as a foreign language around the world

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. With some guidance from the course tutor, evaluate and apply a range of critical approaches to the material covered
• 4. Understand sociolinguistic concepts and apply them to the analysis of case studies
• 5. Following broad guidelines, locate and identify library and electronic resources on a given topic

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Conduct independent study, including preparing material for group discussion
• 7. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction: the Italian language and Italians abroad
• Old mass migration
• New migration wave
• Italian language maintenance and shift
• Migration of ‘new Italians’
• Becoming an Italian citizen by ancestry
• Italian as a foreign language around the world
• Italian(s) in the United Kingdom
• North America
• Latin America
• Italian(s) in the Horn of Africa

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Di Salvo Margherita and Paola Moreno (Eds.) (2017) Italian communities abroad: multilingualism and migration. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Guzzo, Siria (2014) A sociolinguistic insight into the Italian community in the UK: workplace language as an identity marker. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar Publishing.
• Hajek John and Francesco Goglia (forthcoming) Italian(s) abroad: Italian language and migration in cities of the world. London/Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Rubino, Antonia (2014) Trilingual Talk in Sicilian-Australian Migrant Families. London: Palgrave.
• Schmid, Stephan (2005) Code-switching and Italian abroad: reflections on language contact and bilingual mixture. Rivista di Linguistica, 17(1), pp. 113-165.
• Siebetcheu Raymond (2009) La diffusione dell’italiano in Africa: Prospettive di ricerca. Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata, XXXVIII, 1, pp. 147-191.
• Trifone Pietro and Giovanardi Claudio (2012), L’italiano nel mondo, Roma:Carocci.
• Turchetta Barbara and Vedovelli Massimo (Eds) (2018) Lo spazio linguistico globale dell'italiano: il caso dell'Ontario, Pisa: Pacini.
• Vedovelli Massimo (2005) L’italiano nel mondo da lingua straniera a lingua identitaria. Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata, XXXIV, n. 3, pp. 585-609.
• Vedovelli Massimo (Ed) (2011) Storia linguistica dell’emigrazione italiana nel mondo, Roma: Carocci.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: 

Key words search

Italian emigration, the Italian language abroad, Italian communities in the world, Italian in the Horn of Africa, Italian in the UK