‘It’s Precisely the Friulian Identity That Allows Me to Identify This European Identity’: Interaction Between Language Selves in Elders and Young Adults: An Intergenerational Comparison on Language Learning Motivation in Multilingual Friuli Venezia Giulia

Abstract

The research project framing the present contribution intends to be a first empirical attempt to understand whether elders and young adults living in a specific context – i.e., the Friulian-speaking area of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy – could be involved in language learning and teaching within an intergenerational perspective. The first phase of the research consisted in a survey aimed at defining elders’ and young adults’ profiles. Building on those results and within the theoretical frame outlined by seminal work on bilingual selves and language learning motivation, this contribution reports on findings from subsequent qualitative interviews. Interviews aimed at exploring subjects’ language selves and their complex interrelationship and allowed to gain insight into the tight link between language learning motivation, self and identity. The main commonalities and differences between elders and young adults are presented, with a view to highlighting future directions for research and implications for practice.