Translanguaging e pratiche d’integrazione nella scuola plurale

In the last two decades Italian school underwent a radical change becoming more and more pluralistic and multilingual. Despite the richness of linguistic diversity and multilingual practices, these seem to be underestimated in the Italian educational system. As a matter of fact, the almost exclusive attention paid to the dominant code has led to a diglossic situation. In the first part of the paper we discuss the importance of school as a speech community where all students’ repertoires should be integrated within the educational programs in order to encourage a dynamic bilingualism. The key role of the home language as a medium of instruction is then analyzed not only in an ‘additional’ perspective of a sum of two separate languages, but as included in translinguaging practices in which bilingual and transnational speakers engage in daily interactions. In the second part the translanguging model proposed by García (2009; 2014) as a successful pedagogical tool is examined and a direct observation of this educational practice is reported. The connections between the translanguaging model and the pluralistic approaches promoted by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages show a growing awareness of multilingual practices also in the EU. It is to be hoped that these approaches will contribute to the reassessment of Italian linguistic and educational policies in order to go beyond traditional structures and national borders.