Elementi della competenza comunicativa interculturale / Elements of Intercultural Communicative Competence

analisi dei manuali di italiano l2/ls usati nel Cantone Sarajevo / Analysis of Coursebooks for Italian as a Second/Foreign Language in the Canton Sarajevo

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the possibility of teaching intercultural competence in high schools in the Sarajevo Canton. We conducted an analysis of two coursebooks in use in high schools, prescribed by the curriculum. The research objective is to examine the organization of intercultural teaching. In that sense, we first present an overview of teaching culture, as well as political goals elaborated in Europe during the 1990s. We start from the concept of language teaching and proceed with the definition of intercultural competence and its value according to the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue, the Treaty of Maastricht and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Furthermore, we compare the data obtained by the analysis of the manuals with the goals of language teaching in Europe. The goal of the research is to put focus on elements of intercultural communication competence represented in the manuals to verify if it is possible to reach the goals determined by the Council of Europe. With that goal in mind, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the coursebooks with the aid of two tables of analysis which enable us to execute a contrastive analysis of the manuals and to compare intercultural elements with the counsels of the documents issued by the Council of Europe. Our hypothesis is that the manuals prescribed by the Ministry for Education, Science and Youth of the Sarajevo Canton represent the Italian culture in a traditional manner, and that they do not fully implement the CEFR instructions. This research can further be used in determining which manuals will be in use in high schools as well as in the curricular reform processes.