Folk linguistics and language teachingeducation. A case study in an Italian secondary school.

This paper, after shortly introducing Folk Linguistics by defining its domain of competence [cf. Preston, Dennis R., ed. 1999. Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins; Niedzielski, Nancy A., and Dennis R. Preston. 2003. Folk Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter], attempts to draw an outline of the advantages that can be derived from its application to language teaching education from several viewpoints. In order to do so, similarly to what happens with sociolinguistics, we will at first suggest introducing a distinction between micro-language teaching studies and macro-language teaching studies. The former typology of studies is often the direct consequence of the latter, since it lays its foundations and indicates its lines and directions of development. This distinction serves to better define the relation between Folk Linguistics and language teaching education, as language attitudes, being a fundamental component of speakers’ language identity [Berruto, Gaetano. 2005. Fondamenti di sociolinguistica. Roma- Bari: Laterza] and their will and willingness to learn a new language, have an immediate and essential impact especially on the macro perspective. Different possible areas of investigation will then be singled out and described in detail, with reference to the advantages of their application in language teaching education planning and practice. Finally, a case study relating to an Italian Secondary School will be illustrated.