In this paper, we present two versions of a learning game developed respectively at the Grenoble Alpes and Bologna University. This research focuses on a digital game aimed at favouring the learners' "playful attitude" and harnessing it towards "accuracy" aspects of language learning (lexicon and morphology, here). The game,…

Our paper aims at analysing the linguistic "features" produced by Arabic learners of Italian as a foreign language. There are published studies of common errors for Arab students of Italian (Della Puppa, 2006; Giacalone Ramat et al., 2001). However, this study introduces the standardized language assessment, namely the CILS test of…

There is a general recognition that learning of foreign languages is in decline in Australia. This paper uses the social constructivist theory as a conceptual framework to report on a project where university language students supported their high school peers in the learning of their specialist language in New South Wales, Australia. The project…

This is a longitudinal case study of two groups of students (24 students in total) from the Foreign Languages Department of the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. This research deals with the acquisition of the French adverbial pronouns "en" and "y" through two different teaching approaches, the implicit-inductive teaching…

This contribution aims at (1) discussing the characteristics of collecting, filing and storing data to have a databank of oral interactions between university students whose main objective is the learning of a second language through teletandem; and (2) defining the steps for further collections and storage. Our data are Skype sessions of foreign…

The recent technological developments and widespread use of mobile technologies challenge traditional knowledge and skills, with language learning increasingly taking place beyond the language classroom in learners' own environments. The paper presents the ImparApp study that focuses on a pervasive and gamified approach to language teaching and…

The study presented here is interested in understanding the ways in which social interaction in technology-mediated institutional settings is constrained and afforded by what Pennycook defines as "critical moments" in the educational experience. Drawing on Social Learning Analytics and on the concepts of heteroglossia, contingency and…

In this eye-tracking study, we investigated how semantics inform morphological analysis at the early stages of visual word identification in sentence reading. We exploited a feature of several derived Italian words, that is, that they can be read in a "morphologically transparent" way or in a "morphologically opaque" way…

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…

While access to technology presents language learners with a view of the second language (L2) and culture that is very broad and current, foreign language curricula tend to be outdated and much narrower in scope, and they usually do not incorporate critical perspectives. Following the lead of researchers who seek to use education as a bottom-up…

The learning difficulty known as dyslexia affects up to ten per cent of the adult population. In current teaching practice in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), however, there is still little awareness of how dyslexia-friendly language course materials can be created. Language learning materials, although often delivered in novel digital…

This study explores whether chat users are able to extend prior, apparently completed posts in the dyadic online text chat context. Dyadic text chat has a unique turn-taking system, and most chat softwares do not permit users to monitor one another's written messages-in-progress. This is likely to impact on their use of online extensions as an…

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,…

This case study describes the "Bologna-München" Tandem, a cross-border collaboration which began in 2011. The aim of the collaboration is to give students studying Italian at the Ludwig- Maximilians-University in Munich and students studying German at the University of Bologna the opportunity to experience interculturality through…

This article illustrates the findings on multilingualism related to the educational sphere in the city of Rome, within the scope and theoretical framework of the international project LUCIDE (Languages in Urban Communities--Integration and Diversity for Europe). Particularly, it describes the type of linguistic and cultural support offered to…