30921 - Teaching of the Italian Language L2 (LM)

Course contents

In a recent book (2014) – Exploring language pedagogy through second language acquisition research – its authors, Ellis and Shintani, define second language teaching as “an inherently practical affair”, concerning the decisions that teachers make moment-by-moment, during a lesson, and that manifest themselves in teaching-as-interaction.

In making these decisions, expert teachers draw on both a practical knowledge, shaped by their own experience in the classroom, and a technical knowledge that suggests (beyond the ways of planning a lesson and its language content) ‘how to teach', by taking into account theories about ‘how languages are learned'. Originated from empirical research or verified though the latter, these theories are elaborated not only according to different methodological procedures, but also by assuming different perspectives about what is language, how we learn it, which variables (internal or external) come into play while learning it, what is important to analyze in order to better comprehend how learning a language happens. Technical knowledge, indeed, draws on scientific fundamentals whose nature is cognitive, psychological, sociocultural, interactional, etc.

A future language teacher will acquire and master above all a technical knowledge, since good teaching is teaching carried on in accordance with how learners learn, as many authors say.

 

Our course will deal with ‘how Italian L2 is learned', with the purpose of going deeper in the subsequent pedagogical implications for ‘teaching Italian as a L2' to children and teenagers, in multilingual classrooms, and to adults in migrant contexts as well as in higher education contexts (to university students learning Italian L2 in Italy or outside Italy).

We will first refer to second language acquisition studies prompted by the pivotal notion of interlanguage and aimed at describing the acquisitional sequences of linguistic structures, specifically, their gradual surfacing in language use as a result of a cognitive elaboration.  

Then, we will give attention to research on L2 language socialization whose focus is on communicative practices in sociolinguistic/sociocultural heterogeneous contexts (i.e. marked by bilingualism, multilingualism, code-switching and other phenomena related to languages and cultures in contact). Speaking of communicative practices and L2 language socialization means assuming language as an activity, which is simultaneously cognitive and linguistic, individual and social. In other words, it means looking at the pragmatic dimension of language as well as at verbal interactions, along with the idea that “ une compétence linguistique est nécessairement une compétence sociolinguistique à interagir, à construire des relations avec autrui, à co-construire des significations contextualisées”, as a French author observes ( Blanchet, 2014).

Through transcripts of authentic interactions which were audio-recorded in various educational contexts, we will analyze structural aspects of interaction and recurrent classroom phenomena, such as code-switching (between L1/other known languages and the L2 as object of learning), meta-communicative practices, language brokering, discursive identity construction)

This analysis will be oriented towards practical knowledge. It will allow the future teacher to develop an increasing awareness of the minute classroom interaction dynamics and the ways it can foster and facilitate (or, sometimes, paradoxically obstruct) 2nd language learning.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Readings/Bibliography

For the program 1st part :

M. Chini, “Acquisizione e apprendimento di una lingua”, in M. Chini, C. Bosisio (a cura di), Fondamenti di glottodidattica. Apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi , Carocci, 2014, pagg. 47-101

C. Andorno, “Grammatica e competenza metalinguistica” in M. Chini, C. Bosisio (a cura di), Fondamenti di glottodidattica. Apprendere e insegnare le lingue oggi , Carocci, 2014, pagg. 115-30

C. Andorno, Grammatica e acquisizione della L2 in Italiano LinguaDue, 1/2009, pagg. 1-15.

S. Ervin-Tripp, "Acquisizione" , in A. Duranti (a cura di), Culture e discorso. Un lessico per le scienze umane, Meltemi, 2002, pagg. 13-16.

For the program 2nd part :

C. Bazzanella, “Pragmatica e educazione linguistica”, in M. Daloiso (a cura di), Scienze del Linguaggio ed Educazione Linguistica, Torino, Bonacci-Loescher, 2014, pagg. 69-79.

 

M.H. Goodwin, “Partecipazione”, in A. Duranti (a cura di), Culture e discorso. Un lessico per le scienze umane , Meltemi, 2002, pp. 245-49.

E. Ochs, “Socializzazione”, in A.Duranti (a cura di), Culture e discorso. Un lessico per le scienze umane, Meltemi, 2002, pagg. 339-344.

A. Fasulo, L. Sterponi, (a cura di), Elinor Ochs. Linguaggio e cultura.Lo sviluppo delle competenze comunicative , Roma, Carocci, 2006 [Introduzione e cap.3].

 

A. Fasulo, C. Pontecorvo, Come si dice? Linguaggio e apprendimento in famiglia e a scuola , Roma, Carocci, 2000 [capp. 1, 2, 3: pp. 17-71; cap. 5: pagg 108-124; par. 6.3: pagg. 131-42].

A. Ciliberti, R. Pugliese, L. Anderson, Le lingue in classe. Discorso, apprendimento, socializzazione , Roma, Carocci, 2003 [capp. 3, 4, pagg. 57-92; cap 6: pagg.109-120]

S. Walsh, “ Conceptualising classroom interactional competence” in Novitas-Royal (Research on youth and language), 2012, 6 (1), 1-14.

 

*Other reference lists will be given during the course. 

* Students who did an exam of  Glottodidattica or Didattica della lingua italiana during the Bachelor's degree or students who achieved a teaching qualification in Italian L2 will plan some variations with the teacher, during office hours.

** A suggested reading to students who haven't studied Linguistics yet: 

C. Bazzanella, Linguistica e pragmatica del linguaggio . Un'introduzione (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008) is suggested

 

Workshops . Students may also attend the seminars (15 hours) and participate in the practical activities which will be carried out in the Lab Teaching Italian as a 2nd language (as part of the “Corso di Laurea triennale”). These activities are intended to provide some training on topics such as syllabus construction, lessons planning, teaching unit design, learners “linguistic profile”, written and oral texts comprehension. Teachers and experts of the field will be invited to give seminars. The schedule will be given at the beginning of the course (February 2016).

Teaching methods

Frontal and group lessons; some workshops on the analysis of written productions of learners of Italian (in their interlanguage), and on some units and activities designed to improve learners' written and oral comprehension. 

Assessment methods

Assessment methods

Evaluation will be based on an oral exam consisting of both general and specific questions about the topics discussed in the program and an analytical commentary of a short transcribed sequence of classroom interaction.

The exam will allow to evaluate not only the student's mastery of the contents, but also his/her capacity to apply the conceptual tools, which will have been discussed and exemplified in class and in the required books. The evaluation criteria of the student's answers will be mainly the following: precision and appropriateness, an organic and broad view of themes, a capacity in establishing connections among topics, clearness and language accuracy of the oral exposition.

 

 

 

 

 

Office hours

See the website of Rosa Pugliese