The English-Italian Bilingual Student during the English Class: a high-school case study.

Recent migrations data show that the composition of Italian society has changed significantly during the last decades, as a consequence of an increasingly globalised world. The latest trends suggest that the phenomenon of mixed marriages is likely to continue to grow and more and more bilingual students having English in their linguistic repertoires are expected to enter the Italian education system; therefore, teachers are arguably called to develop specific strategies to propose an adequate and inclusive didactic offer. Elicited by a reflection on the situation described above, this project arose from a personal concern, i.e. the worry of facing English-Italian bilingual students in my future career as an English teacher. Starting from an overview of the phenomenon of bilingualism and taking into consideration the crucial role of motivation, four activities grounded on different teaching techniques were outlined and tested in a second year high-school class, with the aim to identify and propose strategies to engage and motivate the English-Italian bilingual student during the English class. The findings suggest that student-centred and playful methodologies can be effective and positive implications for the whole class were observed. However, it should be noted that some techniques might need a gradual integration for the students to get used to non-traditional approaches and that the choice of the contents represents another crucial point in generating the pleasure to learn. Moreover, psychological traits, personal attitudes and preferences of the target student should be taken into consideration not only to propose valuable activities, but also to make the bilingual emerge in class as a resource. At present, this issue seems to represent a knowledge gap in Italy, since the bilinguals having English in their linguistic repertoire represent just a niche of students. The ultimate goal of the present study, thus, is to stimulate a reflection that might lead to the acknowledgement of the relevance of this matter and to inspire further research.