FURLEUS · Promoting Friulian within Multilingual Education: A cross-country, cross-stage, cross-level comparison of Friulian and Basque teachers’ language attitudes and motivation in search of best practices

Promoting Friulian within Multilingual Education: A cross-country, cross-stage, cross-level comparison of Friulian and Basque teachers’ language attitudes and motivation in search of best practices

The project brought attention to the issue of language attitudes, motivation, and language behaviour. It focussed on an under-researched theme: the promotion of the Friulian minority language in education within the multilingual region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG). FVG holds a Special Statute primarily due to its linguistic diversity, as four languages are spoken and officially recognised there: Italian (the State majority language), German (a minority language with a kin-state, Austria), Slovene (a minority language with a kin-state, Slovenia), and Friulian, which is a unique minority language, that is, it does not have a majority status anywhere. To the best of our knowledge, no empirical study had been undertaken on the perceptions of Friulian by teachers prior to the project. Teachers play a crucial role in the educational system, which is expected to both promote the language and contribute to the growth of new speakers. The project, hosted by UPV/EHU in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) in Spain, allowed comparative research across the two regions, BAC and FVG. It had three main objectives. The first was to inquire into the language attitudes and habits of language use of prospective primary and secondary teachers (i.e. students training to be teachers) in the Friulian-speaking area in FVG and the Basque-speaking area in the BAC. The second was to collect examples of best practices of multilingual education in the two contexts, in both primary and secondary school, where the minority language (Friulian, Basque) is used and promoted together with the majority language (Italian, Spanish), the international language (English) and any other language that may be present in the area. The third was to repeat the study carried out in phase one with in-service primary and secondary teachers in the two research contexts. The comparison between FVG and the BAC, recognised internationally as a successful case of minority language (Basque) revitalisation facilitated by a multilingual education system, aligns with the European Union's commitment to promoting the exchange of best practices through researchers' mobility between Member States. Such exchanges are of paramount importance, particularly in the context of preserving minority languages. FURLEUS focussed on timely issues, the resolution of which will enhance our comprehension of Europe's cultural and social diversity in a changing world, towards the realisation of the EU's vision of "unity in diversity".

Data: CORDIS, © European Union