Resumen de Language competence, choice and attitudes amongst Italo-Australian youth
This article presents the findings of an online survey conducted amongst bi- (English, Italian) and trilingual (English, Italian and dialect) Italo-Australian youth, exploring self-assessed language competence, self-reported language choice in various communicative situations, and attitudes towards heritage languages. These young people appear more confident in their Italian than in their dialect skills, and in their ability to understand than to speak. The majority report to employ both languages – and especially Italian – to address a small number of interlocutors, not just the older relatives but also their peers. They resort to Italian more frequently in situations that involve the Internet, thus highlighting the role that technology can play in language maintenance. In terms of attitudes, they display strong affect towards both languages, however they hold more positive attitudes towards Italian. Both languages are connected with family, culture and roots, but are considered of low instrumental value, especially in the case of dialect. The overall shift away from dialect marks a significant difference with language trends observed among previous generations of Italo-Australians, thus confirming the longer-term maintenance in a migration context of the High language, in that it can rely on a wide range of supportive factors.
