Neostandard or substandard? Methodological orientation criteria for teaching

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on how to determine the boundaries of the standard variety of the Italian language and the implications this has on teaching, particularly as L2/LS. The existing gap between the Italian codified in grammars and the Italian used by native speakers has given rise for teachers on the one hand to the need to refer to a standard and, on the other, to the difficulty of how to establish it. The latter is due to the numerous phases of readjustment of the linguistic norm over the centuries and to the different positions adopted by scholars as to which linguistic phenomena are to be considered part of the new standard. Based on the main studies conducted on the neostandard and of two previous studies by the author of this paper, it proposes a re-examination of Sabatini's (1990a) traits of the so-called Italian of average usage according to their frequency (in agreement with Sobrero:1992) in an Italian language corpus, and of two other criteria - namely, functionality and social acceptability - that allow these traits to be distinguished as part of the neostandard or of the substandard. Cross-referencing these three parameters will first make it possible to ascertain whether the most frequent linguistic features fall into the category of standard, neostandard or substandard. Secondly, it will be possible to catalogue them in terms of 'teachable as part of the standard or neostandard' or 'mentionable as a substandard variant', thus providing an orientation tool for teachers.