Citizens of Trieste and their Knowledge of Foreign Languages

The survey is promoted by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Translation-Antenna Italy and carried out by Eurispes in collaboration with the services of the University of Trieste (IUSLIT Department, European Documentation Centre, SBA) and the city administration (Communication Service, Civic Network, Civic Libraries). Announced in 2013, during the annual “European Day of Languages”, the in-depth survey was carried out from the 10th to the 20th of March 2014 in the whole library system of the city (37 libraries involved, public and private) obtaining a large participation (864 valid questionnaires out of 1,400 distributed), marking the great interest of citizens in the issue of foreign language knowledge. After the first experimental research carried out in the libraries of Rome in 2011-2012, the experience made in Trieste allowed to define and test the validity of a survey model (among the innovations, also the combination of paper and online questionnaires) that can be replicated in other Italian and European cities, in order to better promote the dissemination of knowledge of foreign languages, an essential tool for employment dynamics and integration processes.