Understanding the Status of Bilingualism among Members of Two Generations in Slovenian Istria

Abstract

RazUmevanje pOlOžaja dvOjezičnOsti pRi pRipadnikih dveh Različnih geneRacij v slovenski istRi Cobiss: 1.02 Položaj dvojezičnosti v slovenski Istri se nedvomno spreminja, o čemer pričajo rezultati splošne mature iz italijanskega jezika, mnenje učiteljev italijanskega jezika in rezultati raziskav v preteklih letih. V prispevku opazujemo položaj dvojezičnosti pri dveh generacijah, in sicer pri mlajših od 20 let in starejših od 40 let, in se na podlagi izsledkov raziskave opredeljujemo glede položaja dvojezičnosti. Ključne besede: slovenska Istra, italijanščina, slovenščina, dvojezičnost, italijanski mediji Understanding the Status of Bilingualism among Members of Two Generations in Slovenian Istria The status of bilingualism in Slovenian Istria is clearly changing, which is also confirmed by the results of the general secondary-school leaving exam in Italian, the views of Italian language teachers, and the results of studies conducted in previous years. This article examines the status of bilingualism in two generations (i.e., under twenty and over forty) and defines it based on research findings.

Revitalization of the Italian Language in the Slovenian Istria: the case of the position of the Italian language among students as viewed by language teachers

“…Th is also means that all public notifi cations are in both languages and that both languages are used in everyday context and in all public offi ces: in administrative units, and in the context of public education, in kindergartens, and in primary and secondary education. Parents can enrol their children in a Slovenian or Italian school and in both cases, either Slovenian or Italian is taught throughout the schooling period (Kompara 2013(Kompara , 2014(Kompara , 2019.…”

“…Th ere are quite a few researchers dealing with the position of bilingualism in the Slovenian Istria (Novak- Lukanovič 1998Lukanovič , 2010Lukanovič , 2014Furlan 2010;Kompara 2013Kompara , 2014Kompara , 2015Kompara , 2019 and the drop in linguistic competences in the Italian language in the Slovenian Istria (Čok 2006Zudič-Antonič and Malčič 2007;Zorman 2005;Sedmak 2009), a similar decline in linguistic competences is observed also in the Croatian Istria (Matticchio 2016). Th e infl uence of the Italian media on bilingualism in the Slovenian Istria was mentioned in the works of some prominent authors (Čok 2001Mikolič , 2016Kompara 2015).…”

“…Th e present position of bilingualism in the Slovenian Istria was observed thanks to the survey involving primary and secondary school teachers of the Italian language in the Slovenian Istria (Kompara 2013(Kompara , 2014(Kompara , 2019. Th e teachers participated at structured interviews and based on the results of the interviews young individuals born after the year 1990 are no longer characterized as bilingual individuals.…”

“…According to the opinion of the teachers the knowledge of the Italian language is progressively decreasing each year, in view of that it is necessary to take action (Kompara 2013(Kompara , 2014(Kompara , 2019. Moreover, the results of the secondary school fi nal exams in Italian (RIC 2017) usually taken by the students with a good knowledge of Italian are worsening.…”

“…In the last ten years, not only the threshold has decreased to 50 % but only a handful of pupils reached the highest number of points, usually less than 10 %. From the survey from 2013 and 2014 (Kompara 2019) that involved 86 Slovenians, 88 % of respondents believe that they are bilingual and 81 % think that the Slovenian Istria is bilingual, but only 37 % of respondents correctly solved the language test, which included simple exercises on the use of language, some translations, grammar exercises, etc. Th e worst results are recorded with respondents aged between 20 and 25, that is, during the period when the Italian media lost its power and the Slovenian media began to develop.…”