Teaching Italian Language in a Bilingual Kindergarten in Turkey: A Framework for Teacher Training

This study presents a Framework for professional development training, addressing early language learning teachers working in Italian bilingual programs at kindergarten level. The framework is the result of ethnographic observations (Blommaert & Dong Jie, 2010) and of a process of micro-level language policy intervention conducted in Evrim School, an Italian-Turkish kindergarten in Istanbul in a time-span of three years. In this chapter, first I will outline the background to this study, focussing on the main Italian and European frameworks of professional competences for teachers working in pre-primary schools and on the recruitment of teacher of Italian as a foreign language (IFL) abroad. Afterwards, the research setting will be described and analysed across two different dimensions: the context of the role of Italian language in Turkey and the context of Evrim School. The latter is a context that can be considered as a language policy starter at micro-level, since the school planned, tested and implemented a new language policy. Then, I will illustrate the analysis and the findings of semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers and school board members regarding skills and competences required for IFL teachers working in bilingual kindergartens, which contributed to the design of the Framework for professional development. In the end, I will present the implications that this study could offer for early language learning teacher education.