This contribution shines light on the challenges of multilingual pedagogies in the complex minority setting of South Tyrol, a trilingual province in Northern Italy, where three autochtonous language communities – each with their own school system and language education policies coexist.
The paper first sketches the politico-historical context and examines the impact that different politico-ideological perspectives have on language policies and teaching practices in German, Italian and Ladin schools in the region. It addresses issues like cultural pride and identity loss in the face of a (purportedly) threatening majority language and the resultant preoccupation with language(s) separation and linguistic purity in the classroom. The paradoxon of holding on to a monolingual-based ideology and at the same time seeking to promote multilingualism is spotlighted. We will look at how this plays out in the classroom, and how top-down policies and bottom-up inititives are implemented for the three language communities. Examples are provided for successful multilingual classroom approaches. Particular attention is given to the primary school level. Finally, the paper reports on research into the development of early multi-competence carried out in variously multilingual contexts in the region. The results point to significant effects of multilingual socialisation and formal multilingual education. Findings will be discussed against the background of persisting misconceptions vis-á-vis multilingualism in general and the implementation of multilingual schooling in particular.
The theoretical framework for this contribution is provided by Dynamic Systems Theory and more specifically by the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (Herdina & Jessner 2002) and the recently proposed Complexity Framework for Multilingual Competence, short CFMC (Hofer submitted). Accordingly, the author's understanding of (multiple) language competence is informed by a holistic multilingualism-oriented epistemology.
The paper closes with an outlook and suggestions for a multilingual pedagogy for complex sociolinguistic contexts as constituted by the trilingual region of South Tyrol.
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