This article introduces the CELI corpus, a new learner corpus of written Italian consisting of ca. 600,000 tokens, evenly distributed among CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) proficiency levels B1, B2, C1 and C2. The collected texts derive from the language certification exams administered by the University for Foreigners…

This paper explores how a transnational approach to university language classes may help develop students' intercultural competence. Researchers have shown that the integration of literature in the language class has the potential to raise intercultural competence (Deardorff, 2006), especially when migrant and travel literatures are used (Matos,…

In cognitivist Second Language Acquisition (SLA), attention and noticing are described as psycholinguistic processes that (may) have a role in language learning. The operationalization of such constructs, however, poses methodological challenges, since neither online nor off-line measures are coextensive with these cognitive processes that occur…

This short-form article discusses how college students can learn languages in the same way that K-12 students do and points out how teaching practices employed in K-2 classrooms that aid in bringing students from monolingualism to bilingualism can also be useful for college students as they become trilingual. Referring to theories presented at the…

On March 23rd, at the University of Auckland (New Zealand), all lectures were suspended for a week. During this time, both students and staff made a considerable effort to prepare the online delivery of courses. In this chapter we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the Italian beginners courses offered in Semester 1. With no certainty of when the…

On college campuses throughout the United States, classes for decades have been offered to help Spanish speakers learn Portuguese, augmented recently by similar courses in Italian, French, and Catalan. Though there exist numerous commonalities between these innovative course offerings, the pivotal role of Spanish stands out. This essay therefore…

In 2016 the University of Padova and its Language Centre ("Centro Linguistico di Ateneo" -- CLA) became involved in the two-year "Cultura e accoglienza" Project (see Dalziel and Piazzoli in this volume), the aim of which was to encourage around 30 refugees and asylum seekers to pursue university studies by means of a…

Employability is increasingly becoming a central aspect of higher education in the United Kingdom and it is becoming imperative that modern foreign languages teachers engage directly and sincerely with the employability agenda. This article proposes the use of feature films as a successful method for developing and promoting employability skills…

Learning has been moving out of classrooms into virtual and physical spaces for over a decade now (Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula, & Sharples, 2004). It is becoming mobile "in space", i.e. carried across various domains (workplace, home, places of leisure), "in time", as it encompasses different moments of the day, and in…

This paper looks back at an academic-led language field trip project, now in its third year, involving ab-initio students of Italian at the University of Southampton. It considers the role of academic-led field trips in Modern Languages (ML) and it explores the underlying pedagogical approaches that were adopted to enhance students' engagement,…

The teaching of culture has become gradually more significant for all teachers involved in language education; it has been referred as the "hidden curriculum" of foreign language teaching. Because of limited time available in the classroom and curriculum constraints, the inclusion of cultural lessons often comes second to the teaching of…

Examines the pedagogical uses and implications of asynchronous e-mail exchanges by reporting on a pilot project involving student-to-student penpal correspondence between the Departments of Italian at two Australian universities. Students were matched by their linguistic proficiency, then given writing tasks in pairs. The project was successful in…

Examines the behavior of university students of Italian in Australia as they study the meanings of new Italian words. Repetition of the new words and their meanings was the primary learning strategy employed. Results indicate a need to distinguish between the use of context for "generation" of a new word and the use of context for…

Examines the conflict between students' focus on learning the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign language instead of considering the culture that lies beneath the target language, in this case, Italian. Suggestions are made for overcoming the practical difficulty of imposing a language as a cultural entity upon the students. (25 references) (CK)

Argues that from the perspective of second language learning, college teachers should focus on an integrated undergraduate curriculum combining the teaching of linguistics and literature with language learning in an instructional approach informed by second language acquisition research. Emphasizes that multiple benefits are derived from a…