L’arcobaleno plurilingue: un’esperienza didattica piemontese

This contribution documents a project aimed at teaching Piedmontese conducted during the school year 2022/23 in a secondary school located in Rocca de’ Baldi, southwestern Piedmont. The project, entitled ‘Rainbow Week’, was designed to provide insightful responses to several crucial and problematic research questions pertaining to the teaching of regional and minority languages (RML), namely: To what extent is the acquisition of a(n ortho)graphic system significant for the teaching and preservation of these linguistic varieties? What relevance does the presence of a standardized or reference variety, such as the Piedmontese koinè, hold? Does a full-immersion approach yield greater long-term benefits? And how crucial is the involvement of instructors and teachers and their linguistic and multilingual competence? The ‘Rainbow Week’ project, while leaving some of the aforementioned questions open to debate, demonstrates that focussing on oral competence and reality-based tasks is more effective for successful RML teaching practices.