Maja Mezgec
Univerzitetna založba Annales, sozaložnika Slovenski raziskovalni inštitut SLORI in Pedagoška Fakulteta Koper, 2012
The scientific monographic publication was edited at the end of 2012 by the university publisher Annales, with the collaboration of Slori and the Faculty of Education Koper. The researcher presents the results of a survey on Slovenian language functional literacy among Slovenians in Italy. The work investigates the level of functional literacy in Slovenian as compared to Italian, analyses the crucial elements that influence the development of functional literacy in a minority language, and the relation between the development of writing skills in Slovenian and the level of exposure to the Slovenian language. The hypothesis is that minority members, in particular those who finished schools with the minority language as the teaching language, assimilate a certain linguistic standard and a certain level of functional literacy in both languages, the minority and the majority one. Nevertheless, the limited possibilities for the public use of Slovenian and a modest use of Slovenian in the working environment heavily inhibit the use and development of functional literacy in Slovenian language in favour of the majority language, Italian. The gathered data confirm the initial research hypotheses. Along with the empirical part, the first part of the research offers a contemporary theoretical frame that presents the newest findings regarding literacy, functional literacy and the development of bilingual speakers.
The research results offer some initial data on the level of functional literacy in Slovenian language among Slovenians in Italy and on their capabilities of working in Slovenian language; these are then used for concrete proposals for increasing functional literacy in Slovenian.