30921 - Teaching of the Italian Language L2 (LM) (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

Students develop and/or consolidate some key skills through specialised readings: the ability to analyse how the Italian language works, not only in terms of the language as a ‘system’ (at phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels) but also in terms of its ‘use’ (the textual and pragmatic dimensions); the capacity to reflect critically on the mechanisms of communication, considered in relation to both general social (individual and social) behaviours and the specificities of communication in Italian; the ability to develop coherent and conscious proposals in the field of teaching Italian as a second language.

Course contents

The course aims to introduce the concept of acquisition of L2 Italian and to provide the theoretical and pedagogical bases to promote its learning in a variety of teaching contexts.

The first part of the course will present the principles and variables which characterise the communication and acquisition processes of L2 Italian users and learners (including interlanguage and learning varieties, communication strategies, interactional dynamics). Referring to the main theories which describe and explain language acquisition, we will observe and analyse the peculiarities of L2 Italian use and learning, at phonological, morph-syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and textual levels.

The theoretical knowledge acquired and the analytical skills developed during the first part of the course will serve as bases for reflecting on the pedagogical choices of the L2 Italian teacher in terms of curricular planning, methodological choices and class management. Given the multiplicity of contexts in which L2 Italian is taught (e.g., in Italy vs abroad, to children vs adults, in contexts of student mobility vs migration; in mainly monolingual vs plurilingual classes), this second part of the course will invite students to observe and critically evaluate the teaching acts required of the L2 Italian teacher (e.g., identification of possible intercultural and educational goals, definition of syllabus, preparation of teaching materials and aids, management/promotion of class plurilingualism).

Readings/Bibliography

Language acquisition

• Van Patten, B. & Benati, A. G. (2015), Key terms in second language acquisition, London: Bloomsbury. [“Introduction”; “Key terms in Second Language Acquisition”] [9 pp. + 117 pp.].

L2 Italian use, learning, and teaching

• Pallotti, G. (2005), “Le ricadute didattiche delle ricerche sull’interlingua”. In Jafrancesco, E. (ed.), L’acquisizione dell’italiano L2 da parte di immigrati adulti, Roma: Edilingua, pp. 43-59 [16 pp.];
• Andorno, C. M. (2006), “Varietà di apprendimento tra ricerca e didattica”. In Bosc, F. & Marello, C. (eds.), Saperi per insegnare. Formare insegnanti di italiano per stranieri, Torino: Loescher, pp. 86-111 [25 pp.];
• Grassi, R., Bozzone Costa, R. & Ghezzi, C. (eds.) (2008), Dagli studi sulle sequenze di acquisizione alla classe di italiano L2, Perugia: Guerra. [Entire book] [175 pp.];
• Nuzzo, E. & Gauci, P. (2012), Insegnare la pragmatica in italiano L2, Perugia: Carocci. [Chapters 1, 2, 3 e 4] [90 pp.].
• Bettoni, C. & Di Biase, B. (2008), “Lessico verbale e questioni di processabilità in Italiano L2”. In Barni, M., Troncarelli, D. & Bagna, C. (eds.), Lessico e apprendimenti: il ruolo del lessico nella linguistica educativa, Milano : FrancoAngeli, pp. 260-267. [8 pp.].

Approaching Italian from close and distant languages

• Della Putta, P. (2011), “Ho conosciuto a Jorge l’anno scorso. Proposte glottodidattiche e riflessioni teoriche su un’interferenza sintattica nelle interlingue di ispanofoni”, Italiano LinguaDue 3(2), pp. 79-93. [14 pp.]. 
  
• Costamagna, L. (2010), “L’apprendimento della fonologia dell’italiano da parte di studenti sinofoni: criticità e strategie”. In Bonvino, E. & Rastelli, S. (eds.), La didattica dell’italiano a studenti cinesi e il progetto Marco Polo. Atti del XV seminario AICLU, Roma, 19 febbraio 2010, Pavia: Pavia University Press, pp. 49-65.

L2 Italian: the contexts

• Pallotti, G. (2014), “Studiare i contesti di apprendimento linguistico: modelli teorici e principi metodologici”. In De Meo, A., D’Agostino, M., Iannaccaro, G. & Spreafico, L. (eds.), Varietà dei contesti di apprendimento linguistico, Milano: Studi AItLA, pp. 121-132 [11 pp.];
• Andorno, C. (2012), “Varietà di esiti dell'apprendimento dell'italiano nella varietà dei contesti di apprendimento: possibilità e limiti dell'acquisizione naturale”. In Grassi, R. (ed.), Nuovi contesti d’acquisizione e insegnamento: l’italiano nelle realtà plurilingui, Perugia: Guerra, pp. 157-174 [18 pp.];
• Pugliese, R. & Minuz, F. (2012), “L'input linguistico nel continuum delle situazioni didattiche rivolte ad immigrati adulti, apprendenti di italiano L2”. In Bernini, G., Lavinio, C., Valentini, A. & Voghera, M. (eds.), Atti dell’Xi Congresso di Studi dell’Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata (AItLA), Perugia: Guerra, pp. 339-360 [21 pp.];
• Minuz, F. (2005), “Alfabetizzazione degli adulti e lingua seconda”. In Jafrancesco, E. (ed.), L’acquisizione dell’italiano L2 da parte di immigrati adulti. Roma: Edilingua, pp. 112-150 [38 pp.];
• Coleman, J. A. (2013), “Researching whole people and whole lives”. In Kinginger, C. (ed.), Social and cultural aspects of language learning in study abroad. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 17-44 [27 pp.];
• Cummins, J. (2007), “Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms”, Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquée, 10(2), pp. 221-240 [19 pp.];
• Bettoni, C. (2005), “Il bilinguismo dei bambini immigrati”. In Iori, B. (ed.), L’italiano e le altre lingue, Milano: FrancoAngeli, pp. 65-76 [11 pp.].

L2 Italian in the classroom: principles of intercultural language education

• Borghetti, C. (2018), “Otto criteri per analizzare la dimensione (inter)culturale dei manuali di lingua: il caso dell’italiano L2/LS”. In Tabaku Sörman, E., Torresan, P., & Pauletto, F. (eds.), Paese che vai, manuale che trovi, Firenze: Cesati, pp. 81-100 [19 pp.];
• Borghetti, C. (2013), “Unmaskingstereotypes in travel guides. A teaching activity for intercultural foreign language education”. In Houghton, S. A. & Furumura, Y., Lebedko, M. & Li, S. (eds.), Critical cultural awareness: managing stereotypes through intercultural (language) education, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 114-134 [20 pp.];
• Zorzi, D. (1996), “Dalla competenza comunicativa alla competenza comunicativa interculturale”, Babylonia 2, pp. 46-52 [8 pp.].

Further readings for attending and non-attending students

Students are considered ‘attending’ if they have taken part in at least 50% of classes.

• Attending students are required to study the slides projected in class (slides can be downloaded from Insegnamenti Online);
• Besides the bibliography reported above, non-attending students are required to study:
  • Andorno, C., Valentini, A. & Grassi, R. (2017), Verso una nuova lingua: capire l’acquisizione di L2, Torino: UTET [Chapter 5 “Teorie sull’acquisizione di lingue seconde”] [44 pp.];
  • Diadori, P., Palermo, M., Troncarelli, D. (2015), Insegnare l'italiano come seconda lingua, Roma: Carocci [Chapters 7, 8 e 9] [40 pp. + 18 pp. + 34 pp.].
  • Studying the course slides is also recommended.

Additional (optional) readings

• Consiglio d’Europa (2002 [2001]), Quadro Comune Europeo di Riferimento per le Lingue: apprendimento, insegnamento, valutazione, Firenze: La Nuova Italia.
• Council of Europe (2017), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Companion volume with new descriptors, Strasbourg: Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/cefr-companion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/1680787989 .
• Spinelli, B. & Parizzi, F. (2010), Profilo della lingua italiana: livelli di riferimento del QCER A1, A2, B1, B2, Milano: La Nuova Italia.

Teaching methods

Teaching will take place through lectures and workshops (students’ reports on small research projects, sessions of analysis of L2 Italian textbooks).

Assessment methods

Learning will be assessed by means of a short essay and an oral exam.

• In order to be admitted to the oral exam, students are required to write a short essay (approx. 10 pages) focusing on an in-depth analysis of a specific topic. This implies referring to further specialist readings. Students are invited to discuss the topic of their short essays with the teacher, before starting working on it. Concerning the text formatting, they are expected to follow the guidelines provided in the Vademecum of the School of Languages, and in particular the reference style ‘author-date’ (autore-data); the Vademecum is available HERE. N.B. Students need to submit the essay via email at least one week before the chosen date for the oral examination; this deadline is peremptory, and failure to submit the essay in time may lead to exclusion from the examination.
• The oral examination is aimed at evaluating the students’ knowledge and competences related both to the theoretical and to the practical issues related to L2 Italian learning and teaching.

Assessment criteria:

• The short essays will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
  • Text coherence (including the congruence between text title, objectives and themes);
  • Text clarity and readability;
  • Degree of analysis of the topic;
  • Terminological appropriateness;
  • Relevance of the bibliographical sources of the topic (including their degree of reliability and extent to which they are up-to-date);
  • Correctness of form and attention to detail (also in respect of formatting choices).
• During the oral exam, the following features will be evaluated:
  • Extent of knowledge concerning content;
  • Skills of synthesis and argumentation;
  • Terminological appropriateness;
  • Degree of autonomy in analysing phenomena related to language learning and teaching.

Teaching tools

Different sets of slides will be projected during each class; students can download them weekly form Insegnamenti Online. Workshops entail the use of additional tools, including printed handouts (grids for analysis, surveys, etc.), web sites, and web resources for Italian language teaching.

Office hours

See the website of Claudia Borghetti