The Department of Languages & Humanities, Faculty of Education, recently hosted the 6th International Congress of the Società di Didattica delle Lingue e Linguistica Educativa (DILLE) entitled  ‘Politiche e pratiche per l’educazione linguistica,  il multilinguismo e la comunicazione interculturale’ (Policies and practice for language education, multilingualism and intercultural communication).

The congress, held at the University of Malta Valletta Campus was attended by around 120 foreign and local academics and also by a number of teachers of Italian from local schools. While most of these academics carry out research and teaching at universities in Italy, others are affiliated to institutions in Brasil, Cameroon, Serbia, Hungary, Switzerland and Germany, among others.

Discussions mainly dealt with teaching languages within multilingual contexts, with a special focus on the teaching of Italian. Keynote speeches were delivered by Prof. Joseph M. Brincat (University of Malta) and by Prof. Paolo Balboni (University Ca’ Foscari, Venezia).

The local organising committee included University of Malta colleagues who specialize in Italian: Sandro Caruana, Mario Pace, Phyllisienne Vassallo Gauci and Karl Chircop. This conference received support from the Italian Embassy in Malta, from the Italian Cultural Institute and from the Ministry for Education & Employment.