Insegnare gli usi dell’italiano istituzionale per la comunicazione pubblica

The Italian university system is organised in three cycles, according to the Bologna’s Process Structure. There are currently 57 Laurea (1st degree) courses in Scienze della Comunicazione (Communication Sciences), and 24 Laurea magistrale (2nd degree) courses in Scienze della comunicazione pubblica, d'impresa e pubblicita (Public and Corporate Communication, Advertising). A Laurea magistrale (2nd degree) in Public and Corporate Communication, Advertising or its equivalent is a requirement for anyone applying for Public Relations (PR) officer positions in the Italian Public Administration. Such jobs entail a full command of a new language variety, Institutional Italian, and yet only 24 out of 4 communication degrees include linguistics or language modules about this specific focus as part of their course structure. The aim of this article is to show why Institutional Italian should be included in the study plan of any future Public Administration (PA) communicator, and it does so by drawing on the experience of teaching two modules at the University of Salerno, Italiano istituzionale (laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione) and Comunicazione pubblica e linguaggi istituzionali (laurea magistrale in Corporate Communication and Media). It outlines the main features of Institutional Italian and it describes how it has been affected by digital innovation and transformation, by the impact of traditional and new media, and by an increased public awareness of plain language as a means of making communication more accessible. Furthermore, it shows that Institutional Italian works on different levels – syntactical, morphosyntactical, lexical, terminological, textual – which serve different pragmatic purposes for different PA communication tasks. Finally, the article provides practical examples on how Institutional Italian can be taught successfully.