The development of L2 Italian morphosyntax in adult learners with limited literacy

Low literacy and schooling rates are a significant factor among adults in the recent migration towards Europe, including Italy. However, in Italy linguistic research has paid very little attention to the relationship between newcomers’ language learning processes and (low) schooling and literacy. This lack of attention to the role of home language(s) literacy – and, more in general, to the sociolinguistic variables characterising the condition of migration – is problematic at a theoretical level. As it assumes the role of literacy as the main research question, the investigation on the acquisition of morphosyntax by adult learners with limited literacy, which is described in the volume, represents a first effort to fill this gap. Such an effort necessarily requires renewed attention to the sociolinguistic perspective on language learning and use and, perhaps more radically, new cooperation between sociolinguistics and studies on L2 development.