Immigration highlights the question of language and raises the dilemma of the relationship between the mother tongue and the language of the new land. For writers this question is even more crucial: should they write in the language of the place and its readers? Immigration to Israel is not exceptional, of course. What choices are open to those writers, and how are they to convey the complexities inherent in the formation of an Israeli identity? This paper focuses on two writers who demonstrate the role played by the “chosen language” in the cultural construction and deconstruction of Israeli identity. Tuvia Ruebner emigrated from Bratislava, Aharon Appelfeld from Bukovina. Ruebner shifted from German to Hebrew and back to German; Appelfeld wrote only in Hebrew. In both cases, their arrival in Israel enabled them to survive. However, the loss of their families in Europe continued to haunt them. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s concept of ‘translation’ and responding to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of ‘minor literature’, the paper shows how their work conveys a multilayered interrelation between national and foreign languages, and between images of exile and homeland, past, present and future – all of which shed light on contemporary issues of Israeli identity.

Roberto Piumini’s Fables as Italian Lessons

Our research intends to find selection parameters for children’s literature to be used as a fundamental part of a foreign-language curriculum. We achieve this through an analysis of the educational and cultural-linguistic advantages of this literature. Our project’s goal is to expose our students to Italian literature using their second language, rather than their first one, as a way to convey cultural meaning. This educational project was conducted in 2015, in a school in Chicago that offers classes of Italian Language and Culture to children at various linguistic levels, including the English-Italian bilingual one. Our research paper is divided into three parts. The first part introduces a theoretical excursus on the meaning of children’s literature and on the fable’s structure as a literary genre. The second part presents examples of how a specific text (L’albero delle fiabe by Roberto Piumini) was selected and used during the project; this part also includes our comments based on the observations of the child participants. Finally, the analysis stage describes the generalisation of our data within a framework indicating how to select a literary text, which may be useful for other teachers when deciding which children’s books to use and how to apply them to educational curricula.

Artykuł omawia zagadnienia edukacji dzieci romskich w szkołach specjalnych i ich dwujęzyczność. Bardzo często dzieci romskie w wielu krajach Europy Wschodniej są umieszczane w szkołach specjalnych na podstawie testów w oficjalnym języku danego kraju. Dwujęzyczność dzieci romskich nie jest uznawana za zjawisko pozytywne. W niektórych krajach (np. w Republice Czeskiej i Słowacji), jeśli dzieci posługują się jakąś formą języka urzędowego, ale nie językiem właściwym, nadal uważane są za niepełnosprawne intelektualnie. Wyłącznie na podstawie znajomości języka są wysyłane do szkół specjalnych.W artykule przedstawiono również takie kwestie, jak segregacja i dyskryminacja poprzez edukację, rola rozwoju języka ojczystego, zagadnienia dwujęzyczności w szkole oraz program ROMED Rady Europy dla mediatorów szkolnych. W końcowej części opracowania autorzy sugerują kilka propozycji, co mogą zrobić więcej w tym zakresie szkolni mediatorzy, aby zintegrować uczniów romskich w szkole grupy większościowej i aby ich integracja nie była traktowana jako kara, jak to jest aktualnie akceptowane w niektórych krajach.

Grazia Deledda Outside the Canon and Italian Literary Historiography: Some Reflections on Deledda’s Modernity and the Reasons for Her Exclusion

In this contribution, I investigate the reasons why many critics have found it difficult to understand the work of Grazia Deledda, a modern writer between two languages and two cultures: Sardinian and Italian. My purpose is to reconsider Deledda, using new critical tools forged by the 20th-century linguistic, aesthetic, and anthropological revolution. Today, it no longer makes sense to speak of Italian literature or Sardinian literature, but of the literary communication of Italians or Sardinians, that is, of polycentric literary systems whose identity has been historically and geographically established through the contribution of multiple languages and multiple cultures.

The paper aims to study and analyse smart technologies’ impact on students’ motivation to learn foreign languages. The testing method (SLAM), the interview method, the method of expert evaluations, the t-test, factor analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient were used. The control group mainly shows instrumental motivation based on the need to learn the language to solve practical tasks, such as professional activities or travel. The experimental group shows an integrative motivation to learn the language to understand the cultural context and communicate with native speakers. It was established that smart technologies significantly increase overall academic productivity, promote easier assimilation of educational material, and enhance interest in learning a foreign language.