Reflexões sobre os 40 anos de estudos italianos: por uma educação linguística democrática

The article presents the “Ten theses for a Democratic Language Education”, a document established in the 1970s by some Italian linguists, focusing on Italian language teaching in a changing context, and repercussions of this document over the last forty years. The action that resulted in “Ten Theses” is linked to Giscel (Intervention and Study Group in the field of language education [ Gruppo di Intervento e Studio nel Campo dell’Educazione Linguistica ]), which concentrates research in language education in the country. This article presents the publication of the theses, the survey of studies analysing the impact of the document and the new proposals for language teaching in an Italy with “new Italians”. When analysed in its essence, the “Ten Theses” can contribute to the Brazilian studies in search of a language education that is actually democratic. Keywords: Linguistic education, Italian linguistics, language teaching.