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application/pdfThis contribution provides some snapshots of current educational policies in Italy, with particular reference to language learning and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), also considering the wider European scenario. Some of the latest reforms in Italy will be mentioned, in particular CLIL, which is considered by the European Commission to be a case study, as it is compulsory in all upper secondary schools. Some references will be made to teacher training needs and how the Ministry of Education is trying to meet them. Collaboration projects between INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research) and MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) are highlighted.National Institute for Educational Research, Ministry of Education (Italy)departmental bulletin pape

CINGANOTTO, Letizia

神戸市外国語大学 学術情報リポジトリ
Current Educational Policy in Italy : A Focus
on Language Learning and CLIL
著者 CINGANOTTO Letizia
journal or
publication title
Journal of Research Institute
volume 59
page range 141-151
URL http://id.nii.ac.jp/1085/00002342/
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.ja
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Language Policy, Innovations and Practices: A Tale of Two Countries
Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus
on Language Learning and CLIL
Letizia CINGANOTTO
1. Introduction
“Change is the only constant” is the incipit of the 19th lesson Harari (2018) 
provides among the 21 lessons for 21st century, referring to education. Our society 
is ever changing and growing, as a “liquid modernity” (Baumann, 2000), therefore, 
education must keep up with current developments and changes as well. The 
following examples of policies will be described bearing in mind the need to 
innovate and change Italian schools, abolishing the traditional model of schooling. 
This is one of the challenges Italian educational policies are facing and, as CLIL 
has been considered by the European Commission as a driver for innovation, its 
introduction as compulsory into the upper secondary school curriculum may help 
reach this goal.
 
2. A Snapshot of European Educational Policy
A wide range of inputs have recently been provided by the European Commission 
in the field of language learning and teaching. One of the latest examples is the new 
Key Competences Framework (2018), shown in Figure 1. Competence in the 
mother tongue, as it was mentioned in the Key Competences Framework dated 
2006 became “literacy” in the 2018 version, expanding the perspective, in order to 
include not only the first language, but any other communication code (digital 
literacy, visual literacy etc.). Competence in the foreign languages mentioned in 
2006 became “languages” in 2018, referring to a multilingual and multicultural 
perspective, including different language varieties, with a special focus on 
plurilingualism.
The Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and 
learning of languages (2019) relaunched Barcelona objectives (two foreign 
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languages in addition to one’s own mother tongue) and highlighted the concept of 
“language awareness”, as a transversal dimension to any subject of the curriculum.
Digital competence also plays a crucial role for 21st century learners and was 
specifically addressed by the recent “Companion Volume to the Common European 
Framework for Languages (CEFR) with new descriptors”, issued by the Council of 
Europe in 2018, collecting new descriptors and new indicators, after a long period 
of consultation with a wide range of stakeholders (universities, research centres, 
language schools, ministries etc.). One of these new descriptors is “online 
interaction”, considered crucial for our students, constantly exposed to a screen 
when communicating with peers. A pilot project on online interaction was carried 
out in Italy by the Ministry of Education and INDIRE in 2018, which involved a 
school network fostering the use of digital tools and social networks for interacting 
online among peers in English.
3. A Snapshot of the Italian Educational System 
Starting from the graph supplied by OECD (see Figure 2), the contribution will 
Figure 1. Key Competences Framework
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Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus on Language Learning and CLIL
mainly focus on primary and secondary education, addressed by INDIRE for the 
majority of projects and research. INDIRE has been cooperating a great deal with 
the Ministry of Education through a large number of projects, such as the 
monitoring research project on one of the most important latest reforms, the so-
called “Moratti Reform”.
As far as foreign languages are concerned, English is compulsory from primary 
school and often introduced in pre-primary, to upper secondary school. A second 
foreign language is provided only in lower secondary school, choosing mainly 
among French, German and Spanish (Fig. 3).
CLIL is mandatory in the fifth year of all upper secondary schools (Decrees 88 and 
89 dated 2010), and the Ministry of Education issued a document titled “Transitory 
Norms”, including measures and suggestions for a gradual and soft implementation 
Figure 2. Italian School System* 
* (Source: OECD (2012-13), “Italy: Overview of the education system”, OECD Education GPS), 
http://gpseducation.oecd.org/Content/MapOfEducationSystem/ITA/ITA_2011_EN.pdf.
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of CLIL in the school curricula.
4. Latest Italian Reforms
Figure 4 summarizes the latest reforms implemented in Italy with the aim to 
innovate and improve the school system in general and language learning/teaching 
in particular. In 2010 CLIL became compulsory in upper secondary schools and 
standards for languages were set for the different school levels, in particular for 
English:
• A1 at the end of primary school
• A2 at the end of lower secondary school
• B1 after the first two years of upper secondary school
• B2 at the end of upper secondary school.
In 2013 the National Evaluation System was approved after a long ministerial 
process: schools must undergo an internal process of self-evaluation, through the 
Figure 3. Languages Taught at School, Eurydice, 2017, p. 30
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Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus on Language Learning and CLIL
use of certain tools (“RAV”, which refers to a self-evaluation report) and later they 
will receive an inspection from an external evaluation team, interweaving internal 
and external evaluation. The aim is to improve the different aspects of schools, 
such as teaching models, infrastructure, learning outcomes etc. The design of 
improvement is included in a document called “Improvement Plan”, collecting all 
the initiatives and projects that the school is going to implement in order to 
overcome the weaknesses identified during the internal and external evaluation.
In 2015 another important reform was implemented, impacting schools as far as the 
following dimensions are concerned:
• Digital dimension: money was invested in infrastructure and ICT training
• Work-based traineeship was introduced as compulsory in all upper 
secondary schools
• National Teacher Training Plan: teacher training became compulsory and 
structural
• CLIL is recommended from primary school, as starting from the last year 
of upper secondary school is not sufficiently beneficial full stop.
5. Snapshot of CLIL
CLIL in Italy was highlighted and appreciated by the European Commission in the 
Figure 4. Latest Italian Reforms
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aforementioned Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the 
teaching and learning of languages (2019), where the following “case study” from 
Eurydice Brief (2017) was reported (Figure 5):
In Italy the CLIL teacher is a subject teacher (Coyle et al., 2010; Langé, 
Cinganotto, 2014; Cinganotto, 2018; Cinganotto, Cuccurullo, 2019) teaching either 
scientific or humanistic subjects, who has gained a C1 level in the target language 
and the CLIL methodological course delivered by one of the universities selected 
by the Ministry of Education: a very demanding pathway for a middle-aged 
teacher, who has to cope with his/her job and family life, as well as studying. The 
so-called “CLIL teams” made up of subject teachers, foreign language teachers and 
any other language experts are encouraged by the Ministry of Education, as the 
exchange of experiences and expertise may be an added value for CLIL. Most 
popular subjects for CLIL, according to the latest surveys on “Licei Linguistici” 
are: History, Natural Sciences, Physics, Philosophy (Figure 6). In fact, it is up to 
the school leader, in agreement with the staff of teachers, to choose the subject for 
CLIL, apart from technical schools where the CLIL subject is by law the 
specialization and technical subject.
 
Figure 5. Case Study from Eurydice Brief (2017, p. 14)
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Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus on Language Learning and CLIL
The EU-funded National Operational Programme 2014-20, includes measures to 
improve educational equity, quality, lifelong learning, links between school and 
work, technical and vocational education, education infrastructure, administrative 
and institutional capacity and resource management. Specific fundings are provided 
for language and CLIL courses both for teachers and students.
6. Innovative learning environments
As already mentioned, one of the main aims of INDIRE and MIUR in recent years 
has been fostering innovation at school, considering the school from a holistic 
perspective, in all its dimensions. Some of the objectives are: 
•	 creating learning environments that support the success of school leaders 
and teachers 
• reshaping and innovating teaching practices
• enhancing digital innovation and skills in schools
In 2014 INDIRE launched a movement, called “Avanguardie Educative” that now 
involves more than 800 schools and is aimed at enhancing innovative ideas 
implemented by schools from a “bottom-up” perspective, guiding more and more 
teachers and school leaders towards innovation. Figure 7 shows the gallery of 
innovative ideas fostered by the “Avanguardie Educative” movement.
Figure 6. Most Popular Subjects for CLIL
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Letizia CINGANOTTO
7. Teacher Training Needs
The professional profile of a teacher has been widely investigated both at European 
(Kelly, Grenfell, 2004; Newby et al., 2007) and national level (Diadori, 2010), 
highlighting a wide range of competences every teacher should develop: subject 
knowledge, methodological competences, transversal skills, digital skills etc. That 
is why training pathways play a key role for Italian teachers’ professional 
development. According to TALIS findings (2013), Italian teachers had low 
participation in professional development activities, despite reporting a 
comparatively greater need for them (75.4% of Italian teachers reported having 
taken professional development, compared to the TALIS average of 88.4%). Law 
107/2015 made in-service training mandatory, permanent and structural: teachers 
are required to take part in professional development initiatives planned at school 
level and included in the triennial School Development Plan. Such initiatives need 
to be in step with national priorities, school improvement targets and the specific 
training needs of every teacher. This represents a revolution for teachers, who were 
not obliged to attend any training courses in the past. Now training activities have 
become an integral part of the learning pathway and the teacher has to select the 
specific initiative to attend in accordance with the school needs and mission, not 
only following his/her own preferences.
Figure 7. The Movement of “Avanguardie Educative”
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Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus on Language Learning and CLIL
8. Challenges in Language Education
Among future challenges in education and with reference to language education in 
particular, the following issues can be mentioned:
•	 Secondary school CLIL teachers’ level of competence in the foreign 
language (C1). It is a very demanding level, as Italian subject teachers 
were not initially obliged to learn a foreign language, but only to master 
their subject knowledge;
•	 Primary school English teacher training. Official primary school teacher 
training in English delivered by INDIRE on behalf of MIUR stopped 
some years ago and schools have recently organized themselves 
autonomously and often differently from school to school and from town 
to town. New training initiatives would be needed, aiming at B2 level, as 
the B1 sufficient now to teach at primary level is not enough;
•	 CLIL teacher profile at primary and lower secondary level. So far only 
the CLIL teacher profile for upper secondary school has been defined and 
regulated: we are still waiting for indications and instructions from the 
Ministry about the primary and lower secondary CLIL teacher profile;
•	 Varieties of English (ELF, ELFE, EWC, etc.). Standard English seems to 
be the only mastery of the language teachers have and teach in a language 
class: the other varieties are pretty much ignored; in particular ELF 
(English as a Lingua Franca) is completely ignored, while it could 
stimulate students’ fluency, decreasing Krashen’s affective filter. 
With reference to this topic, Santipolo comments: 
Se da un lato molte sono le strade che si potrebbero percorrere per 
sviluppare competenze relative alla variabilità della lingua inglese, non vi è 
dubbio che il primo passo sia la sensibilizzazione verso la tematica. Essa 
infatti in Italia è ancora molto marginale. (Santipolo, 2016, p. 189)
We should inform teachers about other varieties of English, which can be fully 
legitimised instead of being seen as mistakes to be ignored and constantly 
corrected.
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References
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Cinganotto L. (2018). Apprendimento CLIL e interazione in classe. Rome: Aracne.
Cinganotto L., Cuccurullo D. (2019). 42. I Quaderni della Ricerca: Techno-CLIL – 
Fare CLIL in digitale. Torino: Loescher.
Coyle, D., Hood P., Marsh D. (2010). CLIL: Content and Language Integrated 
Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Diadori, P. (2010). Formazione, Qualità, Certificazione per la didattica delle lingue 
moderne in Europa. Milano: Le Monnier.
European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2017. Key Data on Teaching Languages 
at School in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Harari, Y, N. (2018). 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. London: Jonathan Cape.
Kelly, M., Grenfell, M. (2004). European Profile for Language Teacher Education: 
A Frame of Reference. Southampton: University of Southampton.
Langé G., Cinganotto L. (2014). 18. I Quaderni della Ricerca: E-CLIL per una 
didattica innovativa. Torino: Loescher.
Newby, D., Allan, R., Fenner, A., Jones, B., Komorowska, A., Soghikyan, K. (eds.) 
(2007). European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages – a Reflection 
Tool for Language Teacher Education (EPOSTL). Graz: Council of Europe.
Santipolo, M. (2016). L’inglese nella scuola italiana: La questione negata della 
varietà modello, in C.A. Rodriguez (a cura di), Le lingue in Italia, le lingue in 
Europa: dove siamo, dove andiamo. Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari.
Abstract
This contribution provides some snapshots of current educational policies in 
Italy, with particular reference to language learning and CLIL (Content and 
Language Integrated Learning), also considering the wider European 
scenario. Some of the latest reforms in Italy will be mentioned, in particular 
CLIL, which is considered by the European Commission to be a case study, 
as it is compulsory in all upper secondary schools. Some references will be 
made to teacher training needs and how the Ministry of Education is trying 
to meet them. Collaboration projects between INDIRE (National Institute for 
Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research) and MIUR (Italian 
Ministry of Education, University and Research) are highlighted.
151
Current Educational Policy in Italy: A Focus on Language Learning and CLIL
Keywords: CLIL, educational policy, upper secondary education, teacher 
training 


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