“Empowering Women Through Fair and Sustainable Language Learning”

Italy represents an important destination for migrants, with the majority coming from countries such as Ukraine, Romania, Albania, and several African Countries, especially Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal. Within this group of migrants, the sub-group of adult women represent a larger number compared to the other sub-groups defined by age and gender. The main issues migrant women face in Italy are discrimination, racism, and misogyny: they often face prejudice and stereotyping, which can make it difficult for them to integrate into the Italian social dynamics. Additionally, migrant women are often employed in low-wage jobs and they may experience exploitation, abuse, poor working conditions, and challenging access to healthcare. Studies have found that migrants with better language skills are more likely to find employment and earn higher wages than those with poor language skills (Bleakley & Chin 2004; Isphording 2015): fair and inclusive language learning can improve migrant women’s job prospects and increase their earning potential and, therefore, positively impact their growth and success.

In has been shown (Sarro & Silvestri 2016) that adult learners of L2 Italian, who often have a multilingual background, considerably progress in the acquisition of Italian when they pro-actively cross the threshold of the classroom and linguistically interact with the external environment. For such group of learners the acquisition of Italian is the last step of a multilayered linguistic acquisition (Chini 2004; Bagna et al. 2007). The learning process of Italian, that first takes place typically in a shared working space with the classmates and the instructors (cf. Vedovelli 2002), displays a positive noticeable acceleration when the learners engage with the local speech community. Since March 2020 the social interactions of the learners with the local community were dramatically reduced as an effect of the social distancing imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study I will be conducting aims at measuring the impact of L2 Italian language learning on the social integration of migrant women who migrated to Italy and settled in Bologna in the pre-pandemic era, and lived there throughout the pandemic years to the present time. More specifically, I will explore how the social distancing and decreased linguistic interactions affected the language learning journey undertaken by female adult migrants. I will observe what currently applied methods of language teaching best meet the criteria of fairness and sustainability for migrant women to acquire Italian as L2 as a means to successfully integrate into the Italian social tissue.

1. Through interviews to learners and instructors in two cooperatives to be conducted in Summer 2023, I will provide answers to the following questions:
   How did the covid-19 pandemic affect the learning of L2 Italian for migrant women in Bologna?
2. What are the linguistic needs of migrant women in a post-pandemic era?
3. How can L2 language learning programs be designed to effectively empower migrant women?