Costruire un percorso ItalStudio per le eccellenze alloglotte: fondamenti e princìpi metodologico-didattici del Progetto “Garantire Pari Opportunità nella scelta dei Percorsi scolastici”

A massive experience in immersion (or rather: “submersion”; see Tosi 1995) education is taking place in Italy, involving thousands of “foreigner”, bi- (or multi-)lingual students in Italian schools. Although often born and raised in Italy, their choices regarding higher education dramatically differ from those of their “Italian” colleagues (MIUR-Colombo, Ongini 2014): the great majority avoid high schools (particularly “licei”) in favour of vocational schools. A large-scale scientific study, involving 70 experimental groups and 70 control groups in 5 Italian large cities, tries to impact on those choices by providing, among other measures, a course in “Italian for educational purposes” (or “italiano per lo studio”). The principles and methodology of this course, whose results are currently being evaluated, are presented here for the first time.