Teaching and learning Italian language in the United Kingdom

1 INTRODUCTION The approach to the study of a foreign language is linked to a series of factors of different nature. A very important variable is certainly the appeal that the mothertongue country of the language in question is able to exercise on the masses and individuals. The image that one country gives of itself abroad is therefore crucial. The aim of this work is to analyze how Italian language has spread in the United Kingdom, from the phenomenon of immigration to the introduction of Italian in the English educational system, which is now considered an elite interest. My work is composed of three chapters in which I analyze the issue of the teaching and learning of Italian in the United Kingdom from different points of view. The first chapter locates the whole phenomenon in a historical perspective. The diffusion of Italian all over the world, including the United Kingdom, starts from the migration of huge masses of Italians towards other countries. Starting from this social factor, in this chapter the consequent interest in Italian also by autochthonous people is analyzed. The second chapter highlights the initiatives of the Italian government in order to preserve and stimulate the diffusion of our language, including non-institutional associations working together for the same purpose. The third and final chapter has a more interactive nature. It is, in fact, a comparative analysis based on the results of a questionnaire which I sent to two prestigious English universities, Oxford and Bath. The students, in fact, were asked to judge their Italian language and culture lessons, in order to give us a real idea of how Italian is taught in English universities. The questionnaire of the survey carried out and all the documents used are available in the appendix.