The research group "Inclusiv-ITA" aims to explore teaching methodologies for inclusive Italian language instruction, with particular attention to students’ multilingualism and cognitive diversity.
Cummins (2024) states that language teaching is currently undergoing the “cross-linguistic/translanguaging phase” and highlights how contact between languages and modalities can provide 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, building on other European documents such as the FREPA/CARAP, Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures (Candelier, 2012).
Plurilingual and intercultural competence entails, on the one hand, the ability to engage with otherness with the aim of promoting democratic global citizenship, and on the other hand, the ability to maximise one's own linguistic resources, operating within an interconnected repertoire by combining language skills with general competences and a range of cognitive strategies. Moreover, the new mediation descriptors of the Companion Volume make it possible to highlight not only the plural dimension in the interdependence between individual speakers and communities, but also the process of meaning-making within interaction through more complex cognitive competences (Piccardo, 2022).
The group’s research areas thus include plurilingual education, multimodal communication (Kress, 2010), understood as a plurality of semiotic expression, and cognitive diversity, with a particular focus on 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 contact 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 assessing their impact on learning outcomes
- to design educational pathways focused on the development of plurilingual and intercultural competence, enhancing students' linguistic backgrounds—particularly from a metalinguistic perspective—and fostering encounters with otherness, while measuring learning outcomes
- to identify teaching strategies to support cognitive diversity by applying methodologies such as Universal Design for Learning, and to assist students with special educational needs and neurodivergence, evaluating results in terms of motivation and inclusion
- to broaden the applicability of research findings to create teaching materials and peer learning pathways, promoting the sharing of best practices with immediate benefits for Italian language and culture courses.
Roberto Dolci, Associate Professor GLOT-01/B
Borbala Samu, Associate Professor GLOT-01/B
Letizia Cinganotto, RtdB Researcher GLOT-01/B
Valentina Carbonara, RtdB Researcher GLOT-01/B
Marco Filardi, RtdB Researcher PSIC-01/A
Cristina Gaggioli, RtdB Researcher 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