Indagine sulla conoscenza della lingua e della cultura italiana all'ultimo anno delle scuole elementari

Abstract

The aim of this research work is to study the knowledge of the Italian language and culture amongst Maltese students who are in their final year of the primary school. The research will be conducted in five different schools, two of which are state schools, two church schools and one independent school. The research will be conducted by means of a questionnaire that I personally distributed to about four hundred students and by means of an interview with the teachers of year six. The questionnaire is divided in three different sections mainly: general information, Italian culture and Italian grammar. In the first part of the questionnaire, the questions focus on television stations and programmes, Italian websites, and if they will choose Italian at the secondary level. The second part focuses on the geographical aspects of Italy. The final part deals with vocabulary and basic Italian grammar rules. As regards the interview, it consists of ten questions which concentrate on the teachers' opinions about foreign language teaching at the primary level and if there exists any other language teaching besides English. This will determine whether formal or informal teaching of Italian takes place at this stage of schooling.