Vital'nost' russkogo jazyka u vtorogo pokolenija russkojazychnych migrantov v Italii: k prodolzheniju issledovanija

The Vitality of Russian Language in Second Generation Immigrants in Italy This paper introduces the next steps of a survey about the second generation of Russian-speaking immigrants of the last wave, carried out with Russian-Italian bilingual children and students, who were born in Italy or in Russia and came to Italy at a very early age. In the so called “Saturday schools” heritage speakers have the opportunity to maintain and develop their first language, which is risking to disappear under the pressure of Italian dominant language. In the last decade scientific literature for the study of heritage speakers is growing more and more forward-looking, especially in the USA and Israel, where the migration process has developed a stronger social consciousness. Not long ago, the Italian school system was mostly monolingual and teachers took no interest in bilingual children. In most cases, parents in mixed families reported that in rising bilingual children they were unable to find professional assistance at school and in the sanitary system, due to the lack of psycholinguistic knowledge amongst teachers and paediatricians. However, in recent years, the attitude to bilingualism in Italy has begun to change. The transmission of Russian to immigrants’ children in Italy represents a big challenge, especially in mixed families, where communication strategies adopted with children are essential to their linguistic success. In our survey we will try to show that, without the support of a strong community, the prospects for the Russian language in Italy will depend on the parents’ will and school experiences of their children. In this respect Saturday schools undoubtedly play a significant role.