Catia Santi interviews Claudio Manella
Claudio Manella is regarded as one of the main authors of textbooks for students of Italian as a second language. A linguist, a creative writer, and a contemporary historian, he has published extensively on cooperation movements and Italian diaspora between the late XIX century and World War I; among his books on these last two topics are La grande avventura (Locarno: Dadò, 1993) and Le bande svizzere (Milan: Mursia, 1998). On learning Italian as a second or third language, he has written and edited many texts, such as Ecco! Grammatica italiana, Sì! L’Italiano in mano, Come&perché, Italiano plus, all of which have been published by Progetto Lingua Edizioni; most of them are now regarded as “classics” by both students and teachers of Italian.…