La formazione degli insegnanti di italiano in Austria

This paper describes language teachers’ training in Austria where, following a 2013 law, in 2016-17 a new initial training system was implemented nationwide. The paper then focuses on the training of Italian teachers in Carinthia, where the new training system was first tested. In this region, cornered between Latin, German and Slav Europe, Italian is, notably, the second most studied foreign language after English. Finally, Austria’s old and new initial teacher trainings are compared, and particular attention is paid to the structure of the apprenticeship programs and to the way the guidelines set out in the EPOSTL and the EPLTE, the two EU documents on teacher training, are implemented.

Classe multietnica o internazionale?

Internationalisation of education is approached here from the angle of actors – learners – seen as both a collective entity (the classrooms) and individual subjects. This paper problematises, in the (Italian) academic discourses, the use of the word international, which is restricted to higher educational domains, but quite rarely applied to schools, where multiethnic is the word used. Yet still, it is learners’ heterogeneity (in native language, culture, geographical origins…) to be basically at stake in both cases. Conceptions underlying these usages are deconstructed, also by exemplifying categorizations analyses of learners. The ultimate goal is to highlight implications for language education.

Studiare l’apprendimento linguistico interculturale come pratica discorsiva e interazionale

This paper focuses on intercultural language learning and on the methods to study it. The discussion is divided into two parts. In the first theoretical part, intercultural language learning is defined as a linguistic and discursive practice, according to a non-essentialist approach. In the second methodological part, the paper overviews the limited number of studies which, coherently with a language-use-based definition of intercultural learning, have employed forms of linguistic analysis to detect traces of such learning in class interaction. Finally the analysis of one extract from a class-based student-student interaction is presented, in order to showcase how different forms of linguistic analysis can be adopted to investigate the discursive and interactional features of intercultural learning.

Teaching Writing in EAP Contexts

Academic writing is a particular type of scholarly interaction which signals the writer’s affiliation to a specific discourse community. Developing academic writing skills should become a priority for higher education. This paper describes a small-scale study which investigates the role of blogging in developing academic writing skills in undergraduate students. Blogging is viewed as a platform where the scholarly interaction between members of the same discourse community can take place. The paper is based on the survey data and observation during the experiment conducted at Alecu Russo Balti State University of Moldova. It reports on how EFL students reacted to the use of blogs for academic writing tasks. The findings suggest that students seem to have a positive attitude to blogging pointing out to such benefits as: enhanced self-efficacy, awareness of the writing process, development of reader awareness, increased responsibility for the quality of the writing. We argue that blogging can yield significant improvement in undergraduate students’ academic writing.

La certificazione glottodidattica DILS-PG

This paper will describe the knowledge and competencies tested in the Certificate in “Italian Language Teaching” DILS-PG (level 2) examination, produced by the University for Foreigners of Perugia. It aims to show how this knowledge and these competencies are common to second language teachers and refer to international teacher profiles, like those outlined in the European Profiling Grid (EPG), a tool for mapping and assessing language teacher competencies internationally. At the same time the paper will present the preliminary results of a wider research based on the systematic collection and analysis of data arising from the administering of Certificate DILS-PG (level 2). It will highlight how the profile of candidates has changed after the introduction of teaching qualification (A23) to teach Italian as a second language in public schools and the recognition of the Certificate DILS-PG (level 2) by the Ministry of Education as a specific qualification to teach Italian as a second language.

Un percorso di letteratura italiana per studenti cinesi in mobilità internazionale

The paper discusses different issues concerning teaching literature to foreign international students. Referring to a didactic experience carried out at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” with a of a group of Chinese students, the authors focus on the role played by literature in developing reading and comprehension skills. Following Coseriu’s text theory, literature learning is presented as an exercise in interpretation aimed at decoding the addresser’s intentions. Data collected from the analysis of the students’ written productions prove a strong correlation among language proficiency and text skills, which include metatextual abilities by which students can decode the expressive values that make up the sense of literary texts.

Costruire la resilienza nell’interazione in un progetto di ricerca internazionale plurilingue

Based on the experience of an international network of partners involved in the MIRIADI project, this research is meant to show how intercomprehension and online interaction can be used as means of communication in an international project with excellent results. Nevertheless, evidence shows that even if the partners agree on the modes of communication, the usual strategies used on interconnected intercomprehension platforms are not always efficient. Thus, a strong resilient ecosystem must be built in order to face abandon and disaffection when the partnership is vast and the partners do not have the same background.

CLIL: il punto di vista degli studenti

This paper aims to investigate the students’ perception about the implementation of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology (D.P.R. 88 and 89/2010) in languages other than English. The research focuses on students attending foreign languages and human sciences secondary schools in Lombardy. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a questionnaire focusing on the students’ perception of the CLIL learning environment in French, Spanish and German. Results outline CLIL reception in the first years of its implementation in Italy and highlight its strengths and weaknesses as they are perceived from the learners’ point of view.

Valorizzare la diversità linguistica e culturale

Linguistic and cultural diversity has always been a fundamental value of the European Union. However, today, due to the current profound crisis, it is in danger of being perceived rather as an obstacle to cooperation. The aim of this paper is to take advantage of the diversity that characterises multiethnic classes, promoting plurilingualism and a dialogical approach to language learning-teaching and to intercultural communication. In a case study, the validity of plurilingualism and of cooperative methodologies, also in language testing, is confirmed by the results relating to the linguistic and intercultural competence of an experimental sample of middle school pupils.