Maintenance and Use of Heritage Languages and Italian «lingua filiale» by Second Generation Students with Migration Background

Impact FVG 2018-20 is a research project which involved more than 1,000 students with migration background attending primary and middle schools in Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, north-eastern Italy. During the field phase, in school year 2018-19, a sociolinguistic questionnaire was distributed between the students with at least one foreign parent attending G4 to G8, in order to collect data about language repertoires, uses in the family and with friends, maintenance or loss of the Heritage Languages, perceptions about Italy and plurilingualism. As already appeared in previous and similar studies in different environments, the results show a regression in the competence and uses of the language of origin to favor a parallel extension of the domains of Italian, a code that for these second generation pupils cannot be considered a second language anymore. The reasons behind this shift might be different, and some between these factors are presented in these pages with the support of recent data. Notwithstanding the situation, the research subject affirm to share positive perceptions about the importance and usefulness of all the resources available to them, in their plurilingual repertoires. They also seem to be willing to study and improve their abilities in the languages inherited by their migrant parents.