Investigating Italian-Coriglianese bilinguals: a summary of the main findings from the partial adaptation of MAIN

Abstract

This paper presents some of the results from a doctoral research project that relied on the partial adaptation of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) to Coriglianese, an Italian dialect spoken in Corigliano-Rossano (Cosenza, Calabria).
MAIN’s retelling scripts and instructions for administration were adapted, translated and employed for an investigation of the linguistic development of 85 Italian-Coriglianese bilingual children and teenagers aged 7 to 18 years. The analysis of narratives focused on the linguistic aspects (i.e., microstructure), namely subordination and instances of codeswitching. Specifically, the study examined how internal (chronological age) and external factors (frequent usage of L1 and L2) influence L2 development, as reflected in the participants’ elicited and semi-spontaneous production of complex syntactic structures (i.e., relative clauses, RCs). Linear regression analyses revealed that both the frequency of use of Coriglianese and age had a significant impact on participants’ performance in both Italian and Coriglianese. The study provides a foundation for further research into Italian-dialect bilingualism.