Plurilingual competence or repertoire of languages refers to all individuals being potentially plurilingual. As plurilingual competence and language repertoires are individual, assessment modes targeted to the individual and localized to the context should be encouraged. This study explored and depicted the plurilingual profile of Italian Studies…

This paper provides an analytical account of a speaking activity, which was designed and delivered by the authors in order to help modern languages finalist students to further develop their intercultural competence. It argues that even finalists coming back from their year abroad might struggle with making sense of cultural differences. The paper…

This chapter examines the responses of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to assessment-related challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden move to online teaching and assessments required institutions to re-think their approaches to current practices and provide alternative solutions almost overnight. Our survey aimed to gather…

This volume offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, empirical and methodological view over the new scenarios and environments for language teaching and learning recently emerged (e.g. blended learning, e-learning, ubiquitous learning, social learning, autonomous learning or lifelong learning), and also over some of the new approaches to language…

Swain (1985) pointed out the need for increased modified output in the classroom in order to encourage learners to engage in more syntactic processing and, thus, make more form-meaning connections. Research in content-based instruction (CBI) ( Musumeci, 1996; Pica, 2002) has revealed few occasions of pushed modified output from learners.…

Demonstrates ways the sentence combining technique can play a significant role in developing the writing skill, in making students more aware of their creative ability, and in heightening their sense of stylistic preferences. A range of combining exercises using Italian as the model language are provided. (Author/AMH)

A student questionnaire at Augsburg University revealed that students overwhelmingly favored continuing to study foreign languages begun in school, but also beginning Italian, Spanish or Russian. Speaking and auditory understanding were rated higher than reading and writing. Over two-thirds favored English as a common European language. (Text is…

After surveying the ways in which translation is currently used in teaching Italian in British and U.S. universities, an approach is suggested that focuses on using translation activities that are authentic and allow students to develop not only their linguistic and metalinguistic skills but also their sociocultural competence. (CFM)

The six tests cited in this bibliography are used to assess students' knowledge of Italian as a second language. The tests are primarily geared toward higher education or used to grant credit-by-examination. Several of them are from foreign sources. This document is one in a series of topical bibliographies from the Test Collection (TC) at…

Four games for use in the foreign language classroom are described. The first, "A Shopping Game," by Gordon Hartig, is played on a game board in the German classroom and provides practice in producing sentences with the preposition "in," which in some instances takes the dative and in others takes the accusative. A diagram of the game board is…

A study of the relationship between university-level second language development and previous language and other experience is described. The study, in its early stages at the time of writing, is being conducted at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and involves students of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. This report describes the subjects…

Selected papers that address theoretical and practical training of the modern language teacher and language teaching experiments in various countries are presented. Some of the articles included are the following: "Les problemes de la formation linguistique et pedagogique des professeurs de francais en Afrique Subsaharienne" (The…

This report summarizes a study published in 1967 by Harvard University which assessed foreign language proficiency of U.S. college seniors majoring in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian. The measures used were the following: the MLA Foreign Language Proficiency Tests (Form A): Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing; the Modern…

This paper considers the problems of the second-year intermediate college language course, the principles that are fundamental to any intermediate class and observations on the content of the course. The limitations imposed by time, the scope of the subject matter, and the varied capabilities and interests of the students constitute the Special…