Educazione per la democrazia e cittadinanza: il ruolo dell’apprendimento di una seconda lingua

A widely accepted conception, in our times, argues that an essential part of the foreign language learning experience refers to knowledge that is not strictly linguistic. The language teacher is not simply a figure committed to transmitting a range of skills, mostly of a grammatical / lexical nature. Using a language refers not only to the skills of writing, listening or speaking well, but also to the acquisition of fundamental knowledge for ef- Educazione per la democrazia e cittadinanza: il ruolo dell’apprendimento di una seconda lingua Education for Democracy and Citizenship: the Role of Second Language Learning di Douglas Mark Ponton fective integration into a society. These include values that are basic to the way a nation understands itself, and in the west, first and foremost among these are “democracy” and “citizenship” Therefore, the language teacher, as s/he can represent an important point of contact with the host culture, occupies a key position, in two ways. First, their speech represents a correct model of linguistic practices; secondly because they are able to incardinate the culture of the place in first person. This article addresses the issue of transmitting the values of democracy and citizenship, in textbooks for the study of a foreign language. It reviews several examples taken from the most common textbooks today, and explores how they can contribute to the processes of social integration and assimilation with the culture of the new country.