Communicative Competence in Schools with Slovene as the Language of Instruction in Italy

In the settlement area of the Slovene national and linguistic minority in Italy the situations in which Slovene language varieties are used are scarce. The main share of the responsibility for developing effective communication skills in Slovene is therefore transferred to the didactically structured environment. This paper examines the obstacles faced by educational institutions in developing communicative competence in Slovene, the extent to which these obstacles are tackled in the didactic-methodical structure of Slovene lessons conducted at Slovene-language schools in Italy, and the manner in which this is reflected in national examinations, the matura examination, i.e., a school-leaving examination at the end of the upper-secondary school, and the INVALSI examinations for different levels of schooling. The paper outlines the guidelines for conducting communication-based lessons and offers an example of good practice, namely a lesson plan developed within the project EDUKA 2 – Cross-Border Governance of Education.