Language and the Gendered Self: Unraveling the Framework of Gender in the Italian Language

Increased language and gender research have broadened and extended conversations about gender identities and pronouns. As these conversations make their way into more academic circles it is becoming increasingly important for educators of Romance languages to take into account the ways that their current instructional resources and practices represent gender and reinforce social gender binaries. The Italian language makes this pursuit towards a more inclusive language difficult both grammatically and structurally in tandem with resistance from the L1 speakers themselves. This thesis is a response to such resistance because the dynamic nature of language means that it must be readily applicable to the culture in which it is used. Language education is the first step in addressing these linguistic issues. This research is an examination of works in these fields to discover the best methods for creating a gender inclusive pedagogy in Italian L2 classrooms in the United States. It considers the role of linguistic ideologies and brings together research of Gender-Just pedagogy and Critical Race pedagogy to create a new pedagogical method for creating more welcoming second language learning environments.