Migration, language, and variation: the challenge of foreign speakers to detect Italian linguistic varieties

In the last decades, new migratory waves have affected Italy, enriching its sociolinguistic landscape. On one hand, Italy has been dealing with the integration of new immigrants, on the other hand, foreign immigrants need to cope with the sociolinguistic complexity of the Italian linguistic reality. This study aims to examine how foreign speakers perceive Italian linguistic diversity to improve Italian glottodidactics, and, consequently, to help the integration of new immigrants in the society. A perceptive experiment was conducted on 44 foreign respondents to test the perception of six regional Italian varieties. Results showed that explicit learning of Italian enhances linguistic comprehension, but it is not enough to grasp differences across regional varieties of Italian, leading to comprehension difficulties towards the unrepresented varieties in Italian language programs. Increasing the representation of regional Italian varieties could support Italian language comprehension for foreign speakers, fostering new immigrants’ integration into the welcome society.