Approccio plurilingue dall’Europa per l’Europa. Focus sull’apporto dell’Italia

This article presents a critical reflection and a synthesis on the links between European policies aimed at promoting plurilinguism and the Intercomprehension approach, 25 years after its first appearance in the languages teaching environment. In particular, it focuses on Italy’s role in different Intercomprehension projects that have emerged and on how Italy promotes this new approach. The European Union set a target whereby all European citizens should speak two foreign languages in addition to mother tongues. This poses the challenge of which languages to choose both within European Institutions and within the educational systems. Moreover it leads to reconsider the place traditionally assigned to English. This European target remains far from being achieved, as demonstrated by the Eurobarometro polls. Against this background, the Intercomprehension solution still offers a credible option that could be extremely powerful if it were to be rigorously applied on a large scale, as we try to demonstrate. In fact, this approach respects the variety of languages and cultures by considering them within their linguistic families. It is a simple, time-effective and flexible approach for multiple audiences. An examination of the case of Italy allows one to observe how a new dynamic can emerge by participating in several European projects and how it is possible to slowly start thinking about a set of different actions that would help achieve the objective of European plurilinguism.