Abstract

This paper aims to outline the trajectory of teaching specialised and professional Spanish at the University of Milan, against the backdrop of linguistic research conducted at the national level in non-literary faculties since the 1970s. After a brief overview of the general context, with particular emphasis on foreign languages in the Faculty of Political Science at the Milanese university, the scientific and didactic approach proposed by Hispanist Donatella Cessi Montalto (Calvi, Chierichetti, and Santos López 2005) in the field of specialised Spanish will be analysed. This approach was oriented towards language training, including for beginners, through the languages of the social sciences. Subsequently, this scholar’s contribution to the creation of the new degree course in Language Mediation and Intercultural Communication for Business, Law and Community Services, will be examined, in which the study of Spanish for professional purposes found full expression in both didactic and scientific domains.