Bilingual Education in South Tyrol: Taking Past and Present on Board: a Principle Based Approach to Future Reform

Tolerance and harmony are vital goals for Europe. EU language policy has a key role in developing communication between the diverse European cultures. The EU hopes that each of its citizens will be able to use at least three European languages. Particular attention is paid to preserving and promoting minority languages and cultures. South Tyrol is a trilingual region of northern Italy which epitomises many issues related to language rights and linguistic harmony. When two or more languages come into contact, conflict almost always arises. Most schools in the region are separated into either German or Italian language, and pupils must learn the ?other? language as an L2. However, from this language contact situation emerges language conflict; competence in L2 varies, attitude to L2 varies, and there is a marked segregation between the linguistic groups. Many believe that language education in schools can be used to foster linguistic harmony, understanding and tolerance. This book asks how language education policy can be devised to shape the peaceful and integrated future of South Tyrol.